The empirical evidence suggests that, far from creating a democratic and effective culture of accountability in the public sector, the new bureaucracy has contributed to a culture of suspicion, a culture that threatens to undermine already fragile relations of trust and respect. One striking aspect of this culture of suspicion is the rise of jurisphobia - fear of the law… Read more →
One regulatory mechanism accountability must inevitably encounter is time, although there is a surprising dearth of research on this relationship. This is surprising, as for Lipsky’s street-level bureaucrats, the exercise of professional judgement is essential to their function as shapers of public policy, a core professional function that relies strongly on the quality of time provided to make such… Read more →
[This is the first of a series of posts related to my forthcoming ‘Theory and Methods’ seminar The politics of regulation: Exploring bureaucracy and its consequences for public sector professions, to be delivered on the 13th February at the University of Glasgow [1:30-4pm, Rm 433, St. Andrew's Building]. The idea of these posts is to hone in on the… Read more →
[image of Glasgow University (c) Billy R.] Here, Ansgar Allen responds to a previous post ‘What can Foucault tell us about the future of the university?‘ which commented on a recent article of his… The political future of Foucauldian critique is very much in the balance. It is threatened by the prospect of its own reduction to little more than… Read more →
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