April 20, 2005

VCU faculty member publishes book on governance and bureaucracy

Share this story

By Charmaine Curtis
University News Services

A Virginia Commonwealth University professor has written a collection of essays on governance and bureaucracy.

David John Farmer, Ph.D., a professor in VCU's Lawrence Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, wrote "To Kill the King: Post Traditional Governance and Bureaucracy," published by M.E. Sharpe.

"This book seeks to contribute to the creation of a post-traditional consciousness that can revitalize governance and bureaucracy,” said Farmer, who focuses his research on political and social philosophy and public administration. “It explores constitutive features of this fresh consciousness that privileges the imagination."

"To Kill the King" looks at reform movements within the study of governance and bureaucracy and examines post-traditional consciousness in three concepts: thinking as play; justice as seeking; and practice as art; through a series of essays.

Farmer has been on faculty at VCU since 1980. He previously served as director of operations management for the New York Police Department and as a division director for the U.S. Department of Justice.

For more information on the book, visit www.mesharpe.com.