The Absurdity of Bureaucracy

Alternate Titles

• Absurdity and the Sensible Decision - implementation of Danish labour market policy

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.

Subjects

Series Statement

• Political and administrative ethnography

Other Editions

• The Absurdity of Bureaucracy: How Implementation WorksManchester University Press2017-05-31
• Absurdity of BureaucracyManchester University Press2017-01-01
• Absurdity of BureaucracyManchester University Press2017-01-01
• Absurdity of BureaucracyManchester University Press2020-01-01