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This conference draws attention to a largely neglected but central feature of late capitalism: the worldwide reconfiguration of bureaucratic formations on the premise of new public goods. Bringing together social scientists working on and around the theme of bureaucracy, straddling regions and organisational forms, it is envisaged that this conference will be the first of its kind to draw academic attention to the unanalysed global trend of what we term ‘flexible bureaucracies.’
Specifically, this conference asks what exactly is new about newly declared public goods such as transparency, accountability, devolution of power, efficiency, the offering-up of choice, the introduction of new technologies or the raising of measurable happiness? We invite papers from researchers detailing the alterations being effected in variegated bureaucratic formations via new and contested definitions of ‘the public good.’ Ethnographic accounts of flexible bureaucracies are particularly welcome. Please email a title, abstract of not over 250 words, academic affiliation and contact details to Laura Bear (l.bear@lse.ac.uk) and Nayanika Mathur (nm289@cam.ac.uk) by October 21, 2011. Further details and an extended CfP are available at: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1706/
The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, UK.
23-24 March 2012
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