Public administration and transdisciplinarity: a modalistic approach toward knowledge co-construction

Abstract

As an applied social science discipline, Public Administration is a highly diverse field of scientific enquiry that is evolving rapidly. With the emergence of the so-called Mode 2 of knowledge production, the realization increases that complex societal challenges cannot be addressed through singular disciplinary perspectives. There is general agreement among scholars that their thinking should not be dependent on particular disciplines, in order to search for potential solutions to complex societal challenges. Interdisciplinary cooperation and integration often leads to transdisciplinarity from which new insight emerges. In this regard the question is to what extent individual disciplines could contribute to the construction of transdisciplinary knowledge. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the potential cognitive-epistemic (knowledge-based) contributions that Public Administration as study domain could make to transdisciplinarity. For this purpose the philosopher Dooyeweerd�s modality perspective is utilized as a framework.