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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
JSTOR DDA
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
JN7161 .V64 2017
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Details
Subject(s)
Public administration
—
Denmark
[Browse]
Labor market
—
Denmark
[Browse]
Policy sciences
—
Denmark
[Browse]
Bureaucracy
—
Denmark
[Browse]
Organizational sociology
[Browse]
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.
Show 14 more Contents items
ISBN
9781526101341 (hardback)
1526101343
LCCN
2017288945
OCLC
989101361
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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The absurdity of bureaucracy : how implementation works / Nina Holm Vohnsen.
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