Theme-based book review: Responding to uncertainty and complexity in global public administration

While uncertainty as a concept facing the workplace is not new, the impact of uncertainty facing the public sector in recent years seems to have reached a fever-pitch. Public knowledge exists at the boundary between science and citizen; those working in the public space must negotiate facts, values, and perceptions of risk. Narratives and stories of problems that exist and how policy will solve them grow out of an interaction between a variety of official and unofficial actors, stabilizing public ideas and offering opportunities for counter-narratives (Gustafsson, 2017). Public administrators work within this context, which is increasingly arbitrary and unpredictable; administrators “must be responsive to a plurality of different and often conflicting interests and moral viewpoints” (Spicer & Bowen, 2017, p. 313). Yet, they must still account for their productivity, as well as contribution to agency missions and to larger understandings of the public good. In all settings, public work requires a wide skill set—including considerable technical and social acuity, to work with a range of stakeholders toward development of common interests and shared goals. As Funtowicz and Ravetz put it, “facts are uncertain, stakes high, value in dispute, and decisions urgent” (1991, quoted in Kønig, Børsen. & Emmeche, 2017, p. 17). This essay reviews three recent books that illuminate current issues and decision-making in an uncertain and intricate public environment: a collection of case studies on environmental justice and resilience in the Global South; a collection of cases on administrative innovation in East Asia through a knowledge-creation approach; and a probe into decision-making under uncertainty, related to infrastructure projects and climate change.Book ReviewJournal ArticleFinal article publishe