Scholarship and Public Service: The Life and Work of Mary Parker Follett

Any consideration of the founding of public administration would be incomplete without the inclusion of Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), one of the great figures in the history of the discipline. This article is not an essay in biography, however. Given the great range of Follett’s professional accomplishments, the author undertakes “a daunting task” of succinctly relaying those aspects of Follett’s life that relate to her development as a scholar and social activist: her education and training as a political scientist; the evolution of her views on science and scientific method; her leadership of the community centres movement; her theory of community; her work as a consultant and lecturer on organization, administration, and management; her place in the history of the social sciences; and her vision for a democratic society.