How to study bureaucracies ethnographically?

Bureaucracies are specific type of organization dominated by the bureaucratic control mechanism. They can be found in the public sector (e.g. public administration in a large sense), where they partake in the sovereignty claim of the state. They are also found as well as in the private sector (e.g. in large companies, but also in large non-governmental organizations). Bureaucracy is one of the most important 'traveling blueprints' that shape the contemporary world.

Like other organizations, bureaucracies are marked by a tension of formal and informal rules. Since it foundational moment in the 1920, the basic tenet of organisation studies has been that organizations, including public ones, cannot be understood on the basis of officials charts and regulations alone. This gives ethnography its pre-eminent role, as it is the only methodology by which informal practices can be accessed; thus, anthropology has not only been a co-founder or organisational studies but keeps a central place.
In this research tradition, methodological innovations (such as case studies and teamwork, as well as dealing with the modern world) were developed early on, which became accepted in mainstream anthropology only much later. This lecture will focus on the methodology of the ethnographic study of (public) organizations.

Thomas Bierschenk is professor of anthropology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany). He has studied public services in Africa, and is the co-editor of ‘States at Work. Dynamics of African Bureaucracies” (Brill, Leiden 2014), and is now conducting a research project on the management of cultural difference by German police.

SEMINARIA NAUKOWE IEiAK - w trakcie seminariów badania prezentują pracownicy instytutu, a także antropolodzy i przedstawiciele pokrewnych dyscyplin z kraju i ze świata. To okazja do zapoznania się z najnowszymi badaniami i swobodnej dyskusji w kameralnej atmosferze. Spotkania są otwarte dla publiczności. Serdecznie zapraszamy wszystkich zainteresowanych: zarówno badaczy, jak i studentów, absolwentów oraz wszelkie osoby, którym bliska jest tematyka seminariów. Więcej o seminariach

Antropologia dziś - otwarte seminaria naukowe – zadanie finansowane w ramach umowy 973/P-DUN/2018 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę. Projekt jest realizowany przez Stowarzyszenie Pracownia Etnograficzna im. Witolda Dynowskiego we współpracy z Instytutem Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej UW.