A request for comment and/or relevant literature:
Michael Carrithers, an Anthropologist at Durham University, UK, is about
to undertake, with some Geography-trained postdocs, research into the
bureaucracy of the environment (Environment Agency etc.) by doing some
life histories. He writes:
'My basic idea is to see people working within, or beyond, the
characteristic rhetoric of their institutions---I have in mind the
Environment Agency, of course, but it would go for any of the large
institutions we know and love, NHS, schools, universities---and in
particular to get a clear idea of the actual work / action / policy as
opposed to the official version (though there are probably enough
different official versions to work on that alone). So my idea, and
experience, is that it should be possible to do two things, one is see
how people experience the everydayness of it (though as I think of it,
people give exemplary rather than ordinary stories, which may not be the
same), and see how they identify themselves among the many
identifications given them by the official side of things. And of
course talking about people's lives creates a trust which is helpful,
and sometimes seems to become an end in itself, so the research is not
just for a result to appear elsewhere, but is in the thing itself.'
Any readings or comments would be gratefully received.
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