Sentiments of Crisis
A Catalyst for Bureaucratic Transformation and Digitalisation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22170201 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timm Pascal Sureau (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 142-159 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Administory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2519-1187 • E-ISSN: 2519-1187 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.2478/adhi-2024-0009 |
| OpenAlex | W7125378005 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
This paper proposes the concept of »sentiment of crisis« as a collective affective and cognitive response that can trigger rapid institutional change in, for example, state bureaucracies. Timm Sureau argues that the refugee crisis 2015 in Germany led to an administrative crisis within the IT department of Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), triggering a shared sentiment of crisis among its employees. Leveraging Turner’s theory of ritual, Sureau examines how this sentiment created a transitional phase during which old bureaucratic procedures were temporarily suspended and new technological innovations were introduced. Failing to attract sufficient IT staff, BAMF resorted to outsourcing programming and maintenance to external IT companies. The post-crisis ›new normal‹, therefore also included a quasi-permanent dependency on IT companies. Drawing on Blumenberg’s concept of technicisation, Sureau demonstrates how this process of institutional change produced a new, seemingly self-evident reality, where recently introduced technologies – and dependencies – became accepted as a matter of fact. The paper contributes to understanding the complex interplay between crises, collective emotions, technological innovation, and institutional change
Bureaucracy · Institutional change · Institutional theory · Outsourcing · Refugee · Cybernetics and Technology in Society · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Humanities and Social Sciences
Innovatives Engagement
Anti-Crisis
The Social Life of Things
Bürokratie, Wandel und Innovation – verwaltungshistorische Perspektiven
The Motives for and Consequences of the Introduction of Typewriters and Word Processing in the British Civil Service
McKinsey auf der Hardthöhe
The Government Machine
Situations, Crisis, and the Anthropology of the Concrete
The political functions of expert knowledge
The Ethnography of Infrastructure
Out of Order
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure
Objects Don't Have Desires
Externalization or imitation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |