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
Series edited by:
Rod Rhodes
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 13mm
Weight: 471g
ISBN: 9781526101341
ISBN 10: 1526101343
Series: Political Ethnography
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 18 May 2017
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Series editor’s preface Acknowledgements Reading guide Central people, documents, and organizations Prologue: Labor days Introduction: the absurdity of bureaucracy 1 Anticipations Portrait 1: “making a difference” Portrait 2: the perfect plan Analysis: a container of discrete agendas 2 Mutations Portrait 3: the trial mutates Portrait 4: satisfying needs Analysis: vectors of concern 3 Multiplications Portrait 5: the purpose multiplies Portrait 6: the productivity of controversy Analysis: absurdity is a perspective that appreciates the sum-total 4 The quest for meaning Portrait 7: “bending” the rules and agreements Portrait 8: the end of meaning Analysis: they rebel, they do not resist 5 How implementation works Epilogue: bureaucracy—choose your own adventure Appendix: data, position, method -- .
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 -- .
