The Absurdity of Bureaucracy

How Implementation Works

Nina Holm Vohnsen

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English

Manchester University Press
01 September 2020

Social & cultural anthropology; Social welfare & social services; Welfare & benefit systems; Civil service & public sector

Series: Political Ethnography

The absurdity of bureaucracy offers a humorous ethnographic account of policy implementation set in contemporary Danish bureaucracy. Taking the reader deep into the hallways of governmental administration and municipal caseworkers' offices, the book sets out to explore what characterizes policy implementation as a mode of human agency. Using the notions of absurdity and sense-making as lenses through which to explore the dynamic relationship between a policy and its effects, the book reclaims 'implementation studies' for the qualitative sciences and emphasizes the existential dilemma that any policymaker and implementer must confront. Following step-by-step the planning and implementation of the randomized controlled trial, Active - Back Sooner, the book sets out to show that 'going wrong' is not a question of implementation failure but is in fact the only way in which implementation may happen. -- .

By: Nina Holm Vohnsen
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 11mm
Weight: 299g
ISBN: 9781526150066
ISBN 10: 1526150069
Series: Political Ethnography
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 01 September 2020
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Nina Holm Vohnsen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Aarhus University

Reviews for The Absurdity of Bureaucracy: How Implementation Works

The Absurdity of Bureaucracy is a rich and valuable work. The book's main quality is its extraordinary ethnographic richness. It is quite unique in its depth, scope and ethnographic sensitivity. [...] An important and welcomed contribution to the anthropological study of bureaucracy and policy.' Halvard Vike, Journal of Anthropology -- .