The Utopia of Rules

The Utopia of Rules
Original cover
Author David Graeber
Subject Public administration
Published 2015 (Melville House)
Pages 261[1]
ISBN 978-1-61219-374-8 [2]
LC Class JF1351[2]

The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy is a 2015 book by anthropologist David Graeber about how people "relate to" and are influenced by bureaucracies. It was published by Melville House and released on February 24, 2015.

Summary

The author, in 2015

The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy is a book by London School of Economics anthropology professor David Graeber about how people "relate to" and are influenced by bureaucracies.[3] He describes the contemporary era as the "age of total bureaucratisation," in which public and private bureaucracies, now so intertwined as to be effectively indistinguishable, have become the main mechanisms for Wall Street profits, and describes how bureaucratization brings the threat of violence (through legal and police enforcement) into almost every aspect of daily life in wealthy countries.[1] Graeber argues that bureaucracies are no longer analyzed or satirized as they were in Catch-22 or The Castle. He previously wrote Debt: The First 5000 Years and The Democracy Project, and was an organizer behind Occupy Wall Street. The book centers on the "political implications" of bureaucracies and Graeber's solutions.[1] Graeber signed a book deal with Melville House towards the end of 2014. The book was released on February 24, 2015.[3]

Graeber notes that Americans largely dislike bureaucracies, but while they are not motivated to change bureaucracies, he thinks they should be. He makes an urgent call to remove the bureaucratic limits that hamper creativity. He argues that the "order and regularity" of bureaucracy is more harmful than valuable, and elaborates that rules do not apply equally in practice and are more "instruments through which the human imagination is smashed and shattered".[1]

Reception

Tomas Hachard wrote for NPR that the book is part academic and part radical politics. He noted the appearance of "Baudrillard and bell hooks" and other academic language. Hachard wrote that Graeber's non-bureaucratic Occupy politics also undergirds the book's arguments. Hachard wrote that Graeber's points are "almost always insightful, thought-provoking", and worthy of their "serpentine" reasoning around topics including the history of philosophy, linguistics, and science-fiction films.[1] The reviewer felt that the book paired well with Nikil Saval's book on the "evolution of offices", Cubed, which followed the balance between office creativity and office rules.[1]

Legacy

The book's questions prompted the theme of the 2016 Taipei Biennial, in which artists produced work on how institutional bureaucracies structure human imagination.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hachard, Tomas (February 26, 2015). "Please Fill In This Form In Triplicate Before You Read 'Utopia Of Rules'". NPR. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "The Utopia of Rules". Bowker Books in Print. Retrieved February 28, 2015. (Subscription required.)
  3. 1 2 Yin, Maryann (December 5, 2014). "David Graeber Lands Deal With Melville House". GalleyCat. Adweek. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  4. ↑
    • "Taipei Biennial Releases 2016 Artist List". Artforum. July 7, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
    • Harris, Gareth (December 16, 2016). "Swiss scholar Corinne Diserens to curate Taipei Biennial". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved October 5, 2017.

Further reading

  • Bratishenko, Lev (March 23, 2015). "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". Maclean's. 128 (11): 61. ISSN 0024-9262 – via EBSCOhost.
  • Burkeman, Oliver (March 11, 2015). "Capitalism was supposed to reduce red tape. Why is bureaucracy worse than ever?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  • Cosic, Miriam (May 16, 2015). "David Graeber's Utopia of Rules tackles bureaucracy". The Australian. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  • Cunningham, Guy Patrick (January 21, 2016). "On Bureaucracy and the Left". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  • Doctorow, Cory (February 2, 2015). "David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". Boing Boing. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  • Fajgenbaum, Emma (July–August 2016). "Audit Culture". New Left Review (100): 144–151. ISSN 0028-6060 – via EBSCOhost.
  • Fay, Stephen (July 8, 2016). "Politics (Rev. of The Utopia of Rules)". The Times Literary Supplement (5910): 30–31. ISSN 0307-661X.
  • Gatenby, Mark (November 2015). "Book Review: David Graeber The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". Organization Studies. 36 (11): 1599–1602. doi:10.1177/0170840615590746. ISSN 0170-8406 – via Book Review Index Plus.
  • Gray, John (May 6, 2015). "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  • Hanlon, Gerard (February 2016). "Total bureaucratisation, neo-liberalism, and Weberian oligarchy". Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization. 16 (1): 179–191. ISSN 1473-2866.
  • Herzog, Lisa (April 3, 2016). "'Bürokratie': Nur lästig". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070.
  • Inglis, Fred (May 14, 2015). "Quick, to the Batmobile! (Rev. of The Utopia of Rules)". Times Higher Education (2203): 50–51. ISSN 0049-3929 – via EBSCOhost.
  • Isquith, Elias (March 5, 2015). "'I found myself turning into an idiot!': David Graeber explains the life-sapping reality of bureaucratic life". Salon. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  • Jeffries, Stuart (March 21, 2015). "David Graeber interview: 'So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they think are unnecessary'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  • Kindley, Evan (May 29, 2015). "Bashing Bureaucracy". Chronicle of Higher Education. 61 (37): 13. ISSN 0009-5982 – via EBSCOhost.
  • Komporozos-Athanasiou, Aris (March 2016). "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". The British Journal of Sociology. 67 (1): 173–175. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12166. ISSN 1468-4446.
  • Larrinaga, Carlos (2016). "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules". Social and Environmental Accountability Journal. 36 (3): 209–210. doi:10.1080/0969160X.2016.1235401. ISSN 0969-160X.
  • McKenzie, Lisa (July 9, 2015). "Summer reads 2015". Times Higher Education (2211): 48–49. ISSN 0049-3929.
  • Morris, Iain (May 17, 2015). "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy review – paperwork as a tool of repression". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712.
  • Nelson, Sarah (May 15, 2015). "The Utopia of Rules – David Graeber". Full Stop. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  • Piliavsky, Anastasia (March 1, 2017). "The wrong kind of freedom? A Review of David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules". International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 30 (1): 107–111. doi:10.1007/s10767-016-9246-2. ISSN 0891-4486.
    • Graeber, David (March 1, 2017). "A Response to Anastasia Piliavsky's The Wrong Kind of Freedom? A Review of David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules". International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 30 (1): 113–118. doi:10.1007/s10767-016-9248-0. ISSN 0891-4486.
  • Poole, Steven (May 7, 2015). "The industry of Me". New Statesman. 144 (5261): 49. ISSN 1364-7431 – via EBSCOhost.
  • "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber". Kirkus Reviews. December 22, 2014. ISSN 1948-7428.
  • Tett, Gillian (February 20, 2015). "Time to tear up the paperwork". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 5, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  • Umney, Charles (December 1, 2015). "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules". British Journal of Industrial Relations. 53 (4): 816–818. doi:10.1111/bjir.12158. ISSN 1467-8543.
  • Weinberg, Jonathan (April 2017). "Bureaucracy as Violence". Michigan Law Review. 115 (6): 1097–1116. ISSN 0026-2234 – via EBSCOhost.
  • Yarbrough, Marshall (November 3, 2015). "The Misery of the General Reader: Fukuyama and Graeber". Full Stop. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
  • Zantvoort, Bart (May 30, 2015). "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules". Marx & Philosophy Review of Books. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
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