Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Toward Proactive Social Equity Scholarship

Abstract

An analysis of data from the premier public administration journals in Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States shows academic public administration has taken both a narrow and a conservative approach to four social equity issues, including gender, race, sexual orientation, and social class. The findings show these periodicals (a) seldom and sometimes never publish articles on the four themes; (b) confine nearly all their social equity writings to race and gender; sexual orientation and social class receive little or no attention; and (c) only publish such papers long after the matter has become fashionable in most other social circles. The article concludes by suggesting ways American public administration can develop a more intellectually diverse, proactive professoriat, thereby allowing for publishing more-and more timely-articles about emerging social equity topics.

A brief study exploring social equity within bicycle share programs

“…While measuring social equity can be complicated due to the multitude of factors that influence social stratification: race, gender, and class are generally agreed upon cornerstones (Aronowitz, 1981;Bearfield, 2009;Guy et al, 2012;Oldfield, 2006). Social equity has been considered in multiple public contexts, including the ongoing debate regarding access to public transportation (Guy et al, 2012;Short, 2010).…”

Inequality: Underrepresentation of African American Males in U. S. Higher Education

“…Of all students admitted to the most prestigious universities, 70% are from families in the top income quartile (Carnevale & Stroh, 2013). Among 146 selective colleges in the United States, only 3% of freshmen represent families at the bottom quarter of the income distribution (Oldfield, Candler, & Johnson, 2006). In addition, earnings are 45% higher for students who graduate from elite compared to non-elite institutions (Carnevale & Stroh, 2013 Students at these institutions are less likely to graduate and have lower earnings after graduation, which indicates the existence of a separate system for low-income and minority students (Carnevale & Stroh, 2013).…”

Epistemic Community or Tower of Babel? Theoretical Diffusion in Public Administration

“…As is evident even in the aggregated data in Table 3, over a decade passed before the New Public Administration calls for greater attention to equity were reflected in public administration scholarship: Frederickson's 1971 call for a New Public Administration concerned with greater social equity did not show up in scholarship in these journals until the mid 1980s. Oldfield, Candler, and Johnson (2006) further unpack and draw on the social equity data in Table 3 (as well as US data) to argue that public administration in Australia, Brazil, Canada and the US has been well behind the curve in addressing social equity issues. Even the apparent recent emphasis in Australia and Canada is spotty.…”