This essay aims to reflect on public administration as a field of knowledge, and specifically interpreting the present stage of it and indicating strategies to its development in Brazil. This reflection is based on Bourdieu's concept (2004) of field of knowledge; points the most remarkable characteristics of the field of public administration, highlighting the necessity of liberation from the analysis of movements occurred on the national public scenery, to comprehend theoretically what justifies these movements, explain them under the existing theories or develop theories that explain them; indicates the necessity to rethink research and its condition of submission and slavery to these movements; and suggests the need to establish more clearly the discipline boundaries, looking to determine the object and themes, and the theoretical and methodological coherence of its approach.
public administration; public administration field; public administration teaching; public administration research
