Revenge of the Humdrum: Bureaucracy as Profession and as a Site of Science

Abstract

Bureaucracy, so often demeaned, should be understood as an embodied means for the production and deployment of knowledge. Its reputation as humdrum and rule-bound is not necessarily undeserved, yet it makes possible a variety of activities on a scale that would otherwise be out of reach. Here we survey and ponder some of its diverse forms as they have adapted to diverse aims and circumstances evolved over several centuries.