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11.800

Reading, Writing and Research

3-0-9 units · Graduate

Required subject intended solely for 1st-year DUSP PhD students. Develops capacity of doctoral students to become independent scholars by helping them to prepare their first-year papers and plan for their dissertation work. Focuses on the process by which theory, research questions, literature reviews, and new data are synthesized into new and original contributions to the literature. Seminar is conducted with intensive discussions, draft writing, peer review, revisions, and editing. Guest speakers from faculty and advanced students discuss strategies and potential pitfalls with doctoral-level research.

Spring 2007 · Doctoral Research Seminar: Knowledge in the Public Arena

Topics

  • Discussion of student briefs and case papers in progress.
  • Course review, discussion of case topics.

Readings

  • Friedmann, John. Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987, pp. 51-85. ISBN: 9780691022680.
    Listed reading
  • Meyerson, Martin, and Edward Banfield. Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest . New York, NY: Free Press, 1964, pp. 303-329.
    Listed reading
  • Peirce, Charles S. “ The Fixation of Belief .” Popular Science Monthly 12 (1877): 1-15. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Lindblom, Charles E. “The Science of Muddling Through.” Public Administration Review 19 (1959): 79-88.
    Listed reading
  • Scott, James. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999, pp. 87-90 and 309-319. ISBN: 9780300078152.
    Listed reading
  • Kingdon, John. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies . 2nd ed. New York, NY: Longman, 2002, pp. 1-19, 48-74, and 205-215. ISBN: 9780321121851.
    Listed reading
  • Wilensky, Harold. “Can Social Science Shape the Public Agenda?” Contexts (Spring 2005): 41-47.
    Listed reading
  • Moore, Mark. “What Sort of Ideas Become Public Ideas?” In The Power of Public Ideas . Edited by Robert Reich. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990, pp. 55-83. ISBN: 9780674695900.
    Listed reading
  • Sabatier, Paul ed. “Fostering the Development of Policy Theory.” In Theories of the Policy Process . 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2007, pp. 261-275. ISBN: 9780813343594.
    Listed reading
  • Mehta, Jal. The Transformation of American Educational Policy: Ideas and the Rise of Accountability Politics . In progress, 2006.
    Listed reading
  • Stone, Deborah. Policy Paradox and Political Reason . New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1988, pp. 108-137 and 148-165. ISBN: 9780673397515.
    Listed reading
  • Baumgartner, Frank, and Bryan Jones. Agendas and Instability in American Politics . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 25-38 and 83-89. ISBN: 9780226039398.
    Listed reading
  • Schon, Donald, and Martin Rein. Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy Controversies . New York, NY: Basic Books, 1995, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780465025121.
    Listed reading
  • “The Framing Wars.” New York Times Magazine , July 17, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • March, James, and Johan Olsen. “The Logic of Appropriateness.” In The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy . Edited by Michael Moran, Martin Rein, and Robert Goodin. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780199269280.
    Recommended
  • Schon, Donald. “Generative Metaphor: A Perspective on Problem Setting in Social Policy.” In Metaphor and Thought . 2nd ed. Edited by Andrew Ortony. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780521405614.
    Recommended
  • Fishman, Robert. “Urban Utopias: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier.” In Readings in Planning Theory . 2nd ed. Edited by Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2003. ISBN: 9780631223474.
    Listed reading
  • Jacobs, Jane. “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” Introductory chapter in Readings in Planning Theory . 2nd ed. Edited by Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2003. ISBN: 9780631223474.
    Listed reading
  • Isenstadt, Sandy. “Image Renewal.” In Imaging the City . Edited by Lawrence J. Vale and Sam Bass Warner, Jr. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research, pp. 213-235, 2001. ISBN: 9780882851709.
    Listed reading
  • Warner, Sam Bass, Jr., and Lawrence J. Vale. “Introduction: Cities, Media, and Imaging.” In Imaging the City . New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research, pp. xiii-xxiii, 2001. ISBN: 9780882851709.
    Listed reading
  • Fainstein, Susan. “New Directions in Planning Theory.” Urban Affairs Review 35 (2000): 451-478.
    Listed reading
  • Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference . Boston, MA: Back Bay Books, 2000, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780316346627.
    Listed reading
  • Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations . 5th ed. New York, NY: Free Press, 2003, chapters 1, 5, and 8. ISBN: 9780743222099.
    Listed reading
  • Gladwell, Malcolm. “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” The New Yorker , January 1999.
    Recommended
  • Brooks, David. “Katrina’s Silver Lining,” The New York Times , September 8, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • Orr, et al. “Executive Summary.” In MTO Interim Impacts Evaluation . Washington, DC: U.S. HUD, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • Hilsenrath, Jon. “How Much Does a Neighborhood Affect the Poor?” The Wall Street Journal , December 6, 2006.
    Listed reading
  • Ehrmann, John R., and Barbara L. Stinson. “Joint Fact Finding and the Use of Technical Experts.” In The Consensus Building Handbook . Edited by Lawrence Susskind, et al. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999, pp. 375-399. ISBN: 9780761908449.
    Listed reading
  • Friedmann, John. Planning in the Public Domain . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987, chapter 5. ISBN: 9780691022680.
    Listed reading
  • Argyris, Chris. Knowledge for Action . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1993, Introduction, pp. 15-31, chapter 2, pp. 98-99. ISBN: 9781555425197.
    Listed reading
  • Weiss, Carol H., and Michael Bucuvalas. “Truth Tests and Utility Tests: Decision Makers’ Frames of Reference for Social Science Research.” American Sociological Review 45 (1980): 302-313.
    Listed reading
  • Weiss, Carol H. “The Interface Between Evaluation and Public Policy.” Evaluation 5 (1999): 468-486.
    Listed reading
  • Rossi, Peter, Mark Lipsey, and Howard Freeman. “The Social Context of Evaluation.” Chapter 7 in Evaluation: A Systematic Approach . 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004. ISBN: 9780761908944.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: 11.233 ; Coreq: 11.801 G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Sources