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The bureaucratisation of utopia: ethics, affects and subjectivities in international governance processes
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 19:59 authored by Julie Billaud, Jane CowanBureaucracies, whether national or international, have rarely been conceived as ‘utopian’ sites. On the contrary, classic representations tend to describe bureaucratic formations as ‘rationality machines’, administrations as homogeneous black boxes and bureaucrats as individuals working ‘without hatred or passion’ to implement a broader vision of which they remain largely ignorant. The idea for this special issue emerged out of a feeling of unease with such renderings which, although providing important elements of understanding about the nature of bureaucratic power and its effects, do not fully reflect the insights we gained through ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in international bureaucracies. This collection continues a conversation initiated by Laura Bear and Nayanika Mathur who urge us to examine bureaucracies ‘as an expression of a contract between citizens and officials that aim to generate a utopian order’ (2015: 18). We argue that a focus on actors working in international organisations allows the exploration of distinctive bureaucratic subjectivities forged in these settings. By exploring the affective life of international bureaucracies, we seek to understand how actors maintain a sense of agency in spite of the tedious and burdensome nature of the administrative procedures in which they take part.
Funding
Making Minorities as International Practice: Petitions and Claims for Macedonia; British Academy Leverhulme
International Human Rights Monitoring at the Reformed Human Rights Council: An Ethnographic and Historical Study; British Academy Research Development Award; BR100028
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie SocialeISSN
0964-0282Publisher
Cambridge University PressExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
28Page range
6-16Department affiliated with
- Anthropology Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Rights and Justice Research Centre Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-12-19First Open Access (FOA) Date
2022-02-18First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-12-18Usage metrics
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