Vancouver, Canada - University of Northern British Colombia UNBC – Public Administration and Community Development Major

major, ‘public administration’ is conceptualized broadly. It is understood as involving the regulated functioning and management of public service offices, groups, and organizations within broad social, economic, and political contexts.

The skills required to accomplish these tasks are readily transferred between different organizational settings, but at this general level there is a focus upon the interrelation of policy and management; of the recursive relationship between the rules and the actions.

For this major, the understanding of ‘community development’ is similarly broad. It encompasses improvements to social, economic, and cultural foundations so that a community can organize its assets and resources to achieve objectives considered important. This may involve increasing the skills, knowledge base,and ability to access information and resources, and to then use those tools to create strategies and partnerships to take advantage of changing circumstances.

Such actions occur within existing norms, traditions, regulations, and social relationships and may involve conflict and dispute resolution, consensus building,as well as technical skills used in information access and communication.

With these broad understandings, public administration and community development are seen as complementary and mutually reinforcing. Attention to public administration and community development issues and implications may span from the individual through to the global economy. Extending this flexibility, communities can be understood as organized around places, regions, or interests.

Together, this direction will assist the student in becoming equipped for community leadership, with the knowledge and skills to bring together diverse expertise and information on an array of subjects and mobilize it to community benefit. Finally, a graduate of this major will have a thorough understanding how

issues affect Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, and how they can work together effectively.