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  • Bureaucracy

Kollectiv, Pil, 2015, Conference or Workshop, Bureaucracy at Bureaucracy, ICA, London, 1 July 2015.

Abstract or Description:

It is a paradox of advanced Western economies that bureaucracy has not only endured, it has actually proliferated. To understand why is to explore complex questions about capitalism, power, individual and collective psychology, and the nature of work. This event, organised by Eliane Glaser with Pil and Galia Kollectiv, brought together academics, writers and artists to expose and represent the meaning and function of this scourge of everyday life that we all contend with, yet rarely think or talk about.

Does bureaucracy go hand in hand with neoliberalism, or is it neoliberalism's guilty secret, a riposte to its professed efficiency? How is bureaucracy represented in literature and theory – from Franz Kafka to David Foster Wallace, Max Weber to Michel Foucault; and what do these representations reveal about the relationship between bureaucracy and human nature in post-industrial society? We all recognise form filling and box ticking as the pointless paraphernalia of audit culture, yet we comply with it anyway. Could it be that for all its inhuman, lifeless character, we are somehow attracted to bureaucracy because it is untaxing, relaxing, and procrastinatory, in a world that prizes relentless hard work and high-speed commerce?

Contributors:
ContributionName
CollaboratorKollectiv, Galia
CollaboratorGlaser, Eliane
Official URL: https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/symposium-bureaucr...
Subjects: Other > Social studies > L300 Sociology > L370 Social Theory
Creative Arts and Design > W100 Fine Art > W190 Fine Art not elsewhere classified
School or Centre: School of Arts & Humanities
Date Deposited: 06 Dec 2016 12:25
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2018 15:46
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/2269
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