Inform Decision Makers. Produce & Consume research to Inform decisions. But what pieces of research are valued most is where the fun really starts………

What should we (Gov & Nonprofits) base decisions on?
Quick refresher from 1st year core: Major Debates in Public Administration.
Divide between the classics and the challenge.
Classics: Efficiency, Facts, Scientific Evidence, Objectivity, Administration (Experts), formal authority, sameness (rational model) ….. vs….
Challenge: Effectiveness, Values, Experience, Subjectivity and Politics, informal authority (the faces of power), otherness (difference)

Defining the Classics: Public organizations should operate with power located at the top to maximize efficiency. Public administration should be about value free, neutral professionals who are experts that maintain bureaucracy. Army of experts. Made a clear distinction between politics (legislation that follows the public will and values) and administration (the execution of law by value free experts).

Defining the Challenge: The aim of the challenge is to show what is wrong with the world and as it is and to help improve it. They question whether an effect is morally or politically desirable. Recognize that social constructions exist= we cannot know “facts” separate from interests. Emphasize the imbrication of theory and practice. The goal of the challenge is to bring about social and political change.

Both the classical approach to PA & the challenge approach are simply management approaches to getting things done in public service….. make decisions based on what?

Big "T" truths are absolute universals that can be applied to all things.

Little "t" truths are those realities that can “depend” on the context and therefore the “truth” is not fixed or finite. It is subjective and as infinite as the people who may have the experienced the truth in question.

Big “T”ruth (singular): struggle between religion and science; both are beliefs about how the world really works and about the types of creatures we are… often comes to either science or religion….. one set of "answers" must be accepted as the “T”ruth…the final word… the absolute reality….

Little “t”ruths (plural): accept errors exist. Schulz Being Wrong “No matter the domain of life, one generation’s verities so often become the next generation’s falsehoods…” and science is littered with discarded theories (p.9). Link between seeing & knowing= subjectivity. We have the ability to imagine new realities. Research can be improved by questioning the trustworthiness of results and drawing insights from multiple philosophies.

Research & PA: Why?
Gain experience in generating truths (move along spectrum of research consumer, to research producer):

1) Understand the entire process of designing, implementing, and analyzing a research study so that you can ask better informed questions when you are presented with “data” and “findings”.

2) See what is missing in research. All of you will have to read a report at some point in your career. Be a healthy skeptic of research (as the consumer).

3) Obtain the skill and ability to transform data you collect into information to empower stakeholders and influence decision makers (as the producer).

Research & PA: Why study?

Take responsibility for thinking and acting….. too much focus on results and tools can be dangerous…. Have to understand the thinking and research processes behind results, behind the data, behind the survey construction….We want you to be informed decision makers who can understand data from beginning to end, not just the output only.

The more you understand everything behind the scenes in research, the more questions you will feel comfortable asking about future research data you are presented with. This will also help you understand the whole of what you are looking at and be able to defend it or critique it.

You’ll be able to better explain the “why” behind a decision.

A public administrator needs to know the language of a researcher & an analyst needs to know the language of a public administrator. You have to be able to understand each other to make informed decisions. PAs and researchers need to work together to identify problems, ask questions, and seek responses to the questions. Too many of us in public administration assume research is done by “other people”…. Done by “experts”. You need to be able to communicate with “experts” or be one yourself---be a more informed consumer and producer of research----be responsible for results by knowing how the results are analyzed.

Researchers and practitioners transform data into information (we interpret; not census bureau), pitfalls of using existing data collected by others. (JLARC)

What?: Official name: “Population and Housing Census”. That is its purpose: count people within a housing domicile.

Procedure: count all persons residing in country (309 million in 2010; 330 million by 2020).

Document: set of ten questions mailed to each household (140 million households); door-to-door follow up if not mailed back.

Changes in 2020 to save money and increase self-response: http://www.census.gov/library/infographics/invest-now.html . Savings of $5 billion. Response options via e-mail, text, social media, and online. They are also going to pilot test language support. Access existing government data to reduce need for door knocking. If your info is already in another government database (HUD, VA, HHS, SSA, IRS) then the census doesn’t need to bug you.

U.S. gets only one chance each decade to count its population accurately. The Census Bureau must start making major decisions this year about the methods it will use to get the job done in 2020. You are going to start hearing a lot about the census this year. Example: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-117.html July 1, 2015 U.S. Census Bureau announced plans to conduct eight tribal consultation meetings and one national webinar with 566 federally recognized tribes across the country from October 2015 through April 2016.

Why?: (Census Bureau: “good policy demands accurate data.”),

Background of the Census---mandated by constitution Article I, section 2 for apportionment (Constitution ratified in 1788; first census in 1790; how many reps states get is based on population…shift of 12 reps in 2010: WA gained 1, TX gained 4, OH & NY both lost 2). At time of first census it was 1 representative for every 35, 000 people. Now it is 1 representative for every 710,000 people. Congress capped it in 1913 at 435 voting members in the House of Reps. Electoral College : Each State is allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives (which may change each decade according to the size of each State’s population as determined in the Census). Only 538 persons, representing the slates of electors chosen by voters in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, actually vote directly for president.

$$$ Distributes more than $400 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year based on census data. U.S. Census Bureau (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce)

What Data U.S. Census Bureau Collects & When: Population & Housing Census - every 10 years, Economic Census - every 5 years, Census of Governments - every 5 years, American Community Survey – annually, Our many surveys -- both Demographic & Economic, Economic Indicators - each indicator is released on a specific schedule

How Data are Used: used to define legislature districts, school district assignment areas and other important functional areas of government--- to make decisions about what community services to provide. Changes in your community are crucial to many planning decisions, such as where to: provide services for the elderly; where to build new roads and schools; or where to locate job training centers.

Who?: All persons in the country on April 1, 2010 (April Fool’s Day, ha!). Citizen or not (even though main purpose for census was supposed to be for representation in Congress), Incarcerated, Institutionalized (psychiatric facility, nursing home, hospitals, treatment centers), Military base. Not counted: Homeless persons in shelter or not, persons in domestic violence shelters, & persons traveling/living outside U.S..

Response required by law. Refusal or false information= $500 fine. (Up until 1976 you could be imprisoned for 60 days.) Census is “counting”; not research. Participation is mandated by law (per Title 13 US Code). This same law also requires the Census Bureau to keep your answers confidential and only allows them to be used only to produce statistical summary data. In other words, the Census Bureau does not publish data that would identify individuals until 72 years after the date of the census.

Census 2010 Questions:
(show actual questionnaire on screen)--- read off 10 questions. “unmarried partner” category first time on 2010 census. A bit scary as gov could create “master list” of same sex couples. Arguably asking “race” or “ethnicity” at all is a bit scary too for same reason. Big debate before 2010 census about creating an “Arab” category given this is currently lumped in with “white”. (post- Sept. 11th world) The fear of a master list is exactly why we do not ask for religious affiliation.
When the Bureau became permanent in 1902, the Census of Religious Bodies was a stand-alone census taken every 10 years between 1906 and 1936. Data were collected in 1946 but no funding for analysis. (WWII ended in 1945.) The entire census was eliminated in the mid 1950's. The U.S. Census Bureau does not collect data on religious affiliation in its demographic surveys or decennial census. Public Law 94-521 prohibits us from asking a question on religious affiliation on a mandatory basis; in some person or household surveys, however, the U.S. Census Bureau may collect information about religious practices, on a voluntary basis.

Ten questions.

1. How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?

2. Were there any additional people staying here April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1?

3. Is this house, apartment, or mobile home: owned with mortgage, owned without mortgage, rented, occupied without rent?

4. What is your telephone number?

5. Please provide information for each person living here. Start with a person here who owns or rents this house, apartment, or mobile home. If the owner or renter lives somewhere else, start with any adult living here. This will be Person 1. What is Person 1's name?

6. What is Person 1's sex?

7. What is Person 1's age and Date of Birth?

8. Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?

9. What is Person 1's race?

10. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else?

See the guide book for census takers posted on canvas.

Makes us think about what should be the role of government? Social Engineering? This is fundamentally Yanow’s argument. The thesis of her book is that social constructions about race and ethnicity are perpetuated by the definitions of terms used in public policies and are thereby reinforced amongst the general public. We only see what we know. In this way, she is arguing that public administrators are effectively engaging in social engineering: constructing society. Is this not the task of public servants? Set the course of civil society?

We study research in PA because it can help us sift through differing world views. Our own and those of others. World views can influence the motivations for conducting research: conflict between science and policy motivated research. Should science drive policy or should policy drive science? The goals of any social science research project are usually going to be one of (or a combination of) the following: prediction, understanding, description, exploration, explanation. However, the goals of your research project are informed by …. you.

The ways we think effect the ways in which we act and react. --like a picture, thoughts are “framed” or informed by our world view and then we see the picture by reasoning our way through it to find meaning. ---
We frame our initial responses to issues based upon the world view we’ve formed over time (our epistemology). After that first reaction, we then reason through issues based upon where we deem “t”ruth comes from. Our frames of reference and our lines of reasoning inform each other in a continuous feedback loop.