207
The Continuing Relevance of Bureaucratic Organization
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC17 Sociology of Organization (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
Over a number of decades, bureaucratic organization has constituted a continuing target of critique within sociology, organization studies and social theorizing more generally (e.g. Bauman, 1989). In light of recent political developments, however, bureaucratic organization has come to the fore as a bulwark against the abuse of power and the potential tyranny of ‘populism’. This development has perhaps been most visible since the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. Public Bureaucracy in the US has had a strange reversal of fortune, going from being seen as ‘a thorn in the side of democracy to being its saving grace’ (Zacka, 2017). While a number of scholars have explored the political dangers and consequences of the contemporary adoption of an anti-bureaucratic and anti-statist stance (du Gay, 2000; Villadsen & Dean, 2016), much social theorizing nevertheless maintains a permanent suspicion towards bureaucracy and its relation to democratic government, as well as other cherished values, such as ‘autonomy’ and ‘justice’.
In this session, we want to confront this suspicion by calling for papers that explore the relevance of bureaucracy, not least in the light of contemporary political circumstances. We welcome empirical and theoretical papers that analyze historical and contemporary debates as well as papers focusing on practical matters of organizing. Themes to be explored can range from the roots and sources of the anti-bureaucratic mentality within social theorizing as elsewhere to ethnographic accounts that highlight the functioning of specific bureaucracies within public, private, and social organization.