Public Administration Research in East and Southeast Asia: Concluding Symposium Remarks

An integration of the research reported in the American Review of Public Administration symposium on public administration scholarship in East and Southeast Asia is offered. The overview finds that the extent of the English language research published in public administration journals as listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) is limited and largely focused on East Asia. However, a review of studies published in the native languages of Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, South Korea, and Taiwan points to a robust and healthy community that actively publishes on topics of administration and policy. The topics studied reflect international trends in research on management reform and social policy but show distinct differences at the country level, where local debates are more of an influence on academic writing. The scholarship tends toward the descriptive, and much needs to be done to improve the methodology. There is evidence that approaches to research are changing, and a shift in focus toward explanatory work and theory testing is occurring. © The Author(s) 2013.