Master
2026/2027
Anthropology of bureaucracy
ID 1160997
Type:
Elective course (Global and Regional History)
Delivered by:
Department of History
When:
1 year, 3 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
30
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course charts classical social theory of bureaucracy, key historical work and emergent ethnographies in this new field. While it includes case studies that range from (post)colonial, (post)socialist and EU contexts, its focus is not regional but methodological. We look at such issues as bureaucratic rationality, cultural intimacy and state affect, material and archival turns, ethnographies of archives, bookkeeping and digitalization of state, social lives of paper and digital documents, and violence symbolic and real.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- A student compares research design
- A student knows the history of the discipline and subfields
- Able to solve professional problems based on synthesis and analysis
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Matthew S. Hull. (2012). Government of Paper : The Materiality of Bureaucracy in Urban Pakistan. University of California Press.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Nabrendorf, R. O. (1949). Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences. American Sociological Review, 14(6), 821–822. https://doi.org/10.2307/2086694