The absurdity of bureaucracy : how implementation works / Nina Holm Vohnsen.

Author
Vohnsen, Nina Holm [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2017.
Description
xviii, 185 pages ; 24 cm.

Availability

Available Online

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks JN7161 .V64 2017 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Series
    Political and administrative ethnography [More in this series]
    Summary note
    "Nina Holm Vohnsen offers an ethnographic portrayal of the Danish labor market system. The point of departure is her puzzlement that the civil servants she met during her research would maintain a double stance towards their work: on one hand they were convinced they were in the process of constantly improving the welfare system, on the other they routinely found the outcomes of their decisions deeply absurd. Focusing on the randomized controlled trial 'Active - Back Sooner', a central component of the Danish government's 'Action Plan on Sickness Benefit', Vohnsen tracks the continuous planning and disintegration of this scheme and the myriad decisions made in relation to it, providing both empirical portraiture and theoretical discussion. She draws on twelve months of participant observation and ethnographic interviewing at the Danish Ministry of Employment and one of the implementing municipalities to document how rejected ideas and paths of action return to haunt the decision-maker - be they caseworkers, the government administration or politician - creating an absurd world of contradictions and dilemmas. Ultimately, Vohnsen demonstrates that 'going wrong' is built into the very nature of decision-making and suggests that the analysis of absurdity is central to any understanding of how policy develops and how implementation works."-- back cover.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-175) and index.
    Contents
    • 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.
    ISBN
    • 9781526101341 (hardback)
    • 1526101343
    LCCN
    2017288945
    OCLC
    989101361
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