Social & cultural anthropology

The absurdity of bureaucracy

How implementation works

Nina Holm Vohnsen. Series edited by Professor Rod Rhodes

Description

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.

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Author Biography

Nina Holm Vohnsen is Lecturer in Anthropology at Aarhus University

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Manchester University Press

Manchester University Press

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Manchester University Press
  • Publication Date May 2017
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781526101341 / 1526101343
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatHardback
  • Primary Price 70 GBP
  • Pages232
  • ReadershipCollege/Tertiary Education
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions234 x 156 mm
  • Biblio NotesReading guide Prologue: Labour days Introduction: The absurdity of bureaucracy Central people, documents, and organisations Chapter I: Anticipations Portrait 1: 'Making a difference' Portrait 2: The prefect plan Analysis: A container of discrete agendas Chapter II: Mutations Portrait 3: The trial mutates Portrait 4: Satisfying needs Analysis: Vectors of concern Chapter III: Multiplications Portrait 5: The purpose multiplies Portrait 6: The productivity of controversy Analysis: Absurdity is a perspective that appreciates the sum-total Chapter IV: The quest for meaning Portrait 7: 'Bending' the rules and agreements Portrait 8: The end of meaning Analysis: They rebel, they do not resist Chapter V: How implementation works Epilogue: Bureaucracy Acknowledgements Appendix: Data, position, method Bibliography
  • SeriesPolitical and Administrative Ethnography

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