Appreciative Democracy

This is a qualitative exploratory, descriptive study to ascertain the feasibility of public administrators at the local government level using an Appreciative Inquiry approach to increase direct citizen participation. It is framed by the interpretive paradigm. Twenty city managers or their designees from cities of between 40,000 and 250,000 citizens were interviewed. Specifically, respondents were asked twelve semi-structured interview questions. Content analysis was used to identify six themes in the data. Ultimately, this study found that Appreciative Inquiry may be useful in limited circumstances as long as barriers to implementation were adequately addressed. However, the potential risks may outweigh the benefits.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Public Administration and Public Affairs

Department dc:contributor.department

Public Administration and Public Affairs

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Schooley, Shawn Erik

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wolf, James F.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• White, Orion F. Jr.
• Haraway, William M. III
• Rohr, John A.

• public administration
• Appreciative Inquiry
• citizen participation

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-04082008-164622

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/26696