Bureaucracy

Beginning in 1260, the Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan embarked on the creation of a Chinese-style bureaucracy to govern his realm more effectively. At the same time, the court began to promulgate a salary code for its officials. Though both processes were led in large part by Chinese scholar-officials, this group continually complained about the shortcomings of the salary code and its negative effects on the bureaucracy. By studying their writings on salaries and official government records, this article will demonstrate that the Chinese literati used their complaints about the salary code to level criticisms against flaws in the administration and to push for bureaucratic reform, and that the Yuan court was genuinely concerned about the salary problem and took measures to alleviate it. Yet the court never actually reformed, and this article will ultimately aim to show how the response to the issue of salaries reflected the Mongols’ desires to cling to the power and privilege that was afforded to them by a bureaucratic structure which preserved much of their traditional steppe institutions and values.

Karl Kurt Klein (6.5.1897 – 10.01.1971), the only polymath of the Germans of Romania (Siebenbürger Sachsen), had a special relationship to the "Deutsche Burse" in Marburg an der Lahn and its leader Johann Wilhelm Mannhardt (1883-1969). On the basis of their correspondence  the essay gives an insight into the populist (völkisch) and ultranationalistic positions adopted by Mannhardt and Klein in the realm of "Volksdeutschtum" and their confrontation with the organization of the SS which started to patronize the whole policy of "Volksadeutsche" starting with 1937..

How does a big cat in India come to be identified as the one guilty of preying on humans? Indian conservationist law stipulates that the big cat must be identified before it is hunted down. But as I demonstrate ethnographically, there is no possible means of establishing the correct identity of a big cat before it is killed. Through an account of the impossibility of beastly identification, this article demonstrates the limits of both bureaucratic action and conservation in the government of big cats. What operates, instead, is a form of knowing the nonhuman Other, a knowing that is localized, personalized, affective, and momentary. Such forms of knowledge and living-besides are called for by the Anthropocene. Indeed, an analytic potential of the Anthropocene lies in rendering untenable the continual disciplinary sequestering of the nonhuman and environmental from the political, bureaucratic, and legal.

O modelo de organização e administração português foi transplantado para suas colônias, como o Brasil, trazendo consigo aspectos como o patrimonialismo - que foi decisivo na maneira como a administração pública brasileira se desenvolveu. Desde a criação das Capitanias, posteriormente submetidas ao governo-geral, até o modelo de organização burocrático colonial, o objetivo primeiro era manter o controle do poder nas mãos da Coroa e impedir a autonomia da colônia. Neste trabalho, então, serão abordados estes aspectos da administração do brasil colonia.

The dissertation focuses on the texts of a religious movement known as Tianshidao (the Way of the Celestial Masters) from the 2nd to the 5th century CE. Tianshidao is presented as a multifaceted tradition that should not be reduced by a predefined essence or a teleological vision of history. Instead of reconstructing one coherent cosmology, the author interprets the texts as representing various alternative cosmologies. They are compared according to the theory of cultural bias of Mary Douglas, in terms of grid and group. Special attention is paid to the employment of the bureaucratic imagery and the representations of time which are interpreted in the context of the cultural bias and the various modes of relationship towards the institutions of Tianshidao and the state. The author also analyses the millennialist character of the movement which was noted by previous research and distinguishes between various types of millennialism.

Teacher burnout is a psychological phenomenon affecting teachers’ effectiveness and wellbeing across the globe. Thus, education researchers have investigated its antecedents to identify approaches to alleviate teacher burnout. However, many of the existing studies tend to underline the effects of psychological factors but overlook the effects of structural factors on teacher burnout. Thus, the aim of this study is to fill the research gap by investigating how teacher burnout is affected by enabling school bureaucracy as a structural factor and psychological empowerment as a psychological factor based on empowerment theory. By using the self-administrated questionnaire survey, the study investigated 322 primary and secondary schoolteachers from China. It finds that structural empowerment and psychological empowerment are negatively associated with teacher burnout. Moreover, the relationship between structural empowerment and teacher burnout was mediated by psychological empowerment, especially its dimensions of meaning and competence. View Full-Text

CHAPTER 8 Economic Reforms, Growth, and Governance: The Political Economy Aspects of Bangladesh's Development Surprise Wahiduddin Mahmud, Sadiq Ahmed, and Sandeep Mahajan Bangladesh emerged from its war of independence desperately poor, overpopulated, and ...

A análise das capacidades estatais é central para a compreensão da implementação de políticas públicas e seus resultados. Ainda que haja um enorme debate em torno do conceito, alguns estudos mostram que duas dimensões da capacidade devem ser consideradas: a técnico-administrativa e a político-relacional. No entanto, há poucos estudos que buscaram compreender em maior profundidade essas dimensões no nível local, já que a literatura esteve mais focada na análise do governo federal. Este artigo busca suprir essa lacuna, analisando a capacidade estatal dos municípios brasileiros a partir do estudo da política de educação e das secretarias municipais de Educação em oito municípios. A análise qualitativa e comparativa de dados coletados entre entrevistas semiestruturadas e observação aponta que ambas as dimensões da capacidade estatal são frágeis em nível municipal. Apesar disso, a autonomia das secretarias e a liderança dos gestores, assim como a relação entre secretarias e escolas, explicam as diferenças na implementação da política educacional entre os municípios analisados.

Significant variation in the institutions and efficiency of public bureaucracies across countries and regions are observed. These differences could be partially responsible for divergence in the effectiveness of policy implementation, corruption levels, and economic development. Do imperial legacies contribute to the observed variation in the organization of public administrations? Historical foreign rule and colonization have been shown to have lasting effects on legal systems, political institutions, and trade in former controlled territories. Imperial legacies could also explain variations in the performance of public administrations. The author uses the case of Poland to investigate the long-term effects of foreign rule on bureaucratic systems. Historically, Poland was split between three imperial powers with very different public administrations: Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Statistical analyses of original data collected through a survey of more than 650 Polish public administrations suggest that some present-day differences in the organization and efficiency of bureaucracies are due to imperial legacies.

"Review from Choice:
Waters, Tony. Schooling, childhood, and bureaucracy: bureaucratizing the child. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 255p bibl index ISBN 9781137269713, S90.00

Waters (California State Univ., Chico) is by education and profession a sociologist, and it shows on every page of this work. If readers are not familiar with the term "habitus," they will be by the end of the book. The term "habitus" means a certain behavior or belief that has become part of a society's structure and ingrained into individuals and sociological systems of that culture when the original purpose of that belief can no longer be recalled. In short, people continue to do things because that is the way they were taught, giving little thought as to why they do them. The word appears on nearly every page of this book, and is used to illustrate various sociological perspectives on the field of education. What this means is that, in the author's view, schools in the US exist the way they do because most of the people in the US are parts of larger bureaucracies, and schools reflect the needs of those bureaucracies by preparing children to fulfill bureaucratic roles once they become adults. It is an interesting book that explains why schools are the way they are today. Summing Up: Recommended. ** Graduate, research, and professional collections.--J. D. Neal, University of Central Missouri

Neal, J.D.

Source Citation  (MLA 7th Edition)
Neal, J.D. "Waters, Tony. Schooling, childhood, and bureaucracy: bureaucratizing the child." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries June 2013: 1895. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Dec. 2013.

‘Rude’ forms of accountability are central to how poor people negotiate their entitlements on the frontline of service delivery in Bangladesh. This paper documents the unorganised, informal pressures that poor citizens exert on officials in a context where effective formal systems for accountability are absent, and the state remains unreformed in key respects. The paper explores the impact of ‘rude accountability’ on services, as well as their limitations and the consequences for formal accountability systems. Based on extensive research into how poor people experience safety nets, schools and health services, the paper argues that strong social and local political pressures go some way towards supplying a rough responsiveness to demands for service. These work through shame and embarrassment, pressures to maintain reputation and status, and the threat of violence. Poor people have good reasons to use these methods in preference to formal accountability mechanisms. And poor women may have a particularly strong comparative advantage in doing so – not because they are so much better than men or rich people at complaining and shaming, but because it is comparatively less difficult for them to do so than to engage in more formally structured means of complaint or feedback. The idea of rude accountability is seductive: when formal governance systems fail, the idea that there are informal mechanisms that are better suited to context and culture is intrinsically attractive. Yet the paper concludes that the gains from rude accountability are often short-lived and may backfire, as public officials fear and resist efforts to enable citizen participation in holding them to account. There are features of contemporary Bangladeshi state-society relations that lend themselves to informal means of accountability, the analysis here of informal accountability mechanisms has wider implications for the move towards citizen involvement in performance-based accountability in other contexts.

How do state bureaucracies learn, innovate, and play a positive role in development? The book addresses such question and takes issue with the extant literature on "bureaucracy and development". It argues current approaches have mischaracterized discretion and variability in bureaucratic behavior as impediments for development. Instead, it introduces the notion of "flexible bureaucracies" and elaborates on the links between discretion, creativity, and accountability. According to this approach, internal heterogeneity and the seemingly organizational inconsistency resulting from discretion (e.g. coexistence of different understandings about work, practices, and behaviors within the same organization) create opportunities for experimentation, continual reflection on practice, as well as alternative forms of accountability on bureaucratic behavior, rather than opportunities for misbehavior and rent-seeking. The research involved subnational comparative analyses based on extensive on-site fieldwork on the Brazilian Labor Inspection Department, including detailed investigations of a sample of 27 cases of labor inspectors’ intervention in different economic sectors and states.

O desenvolvimento de políticas de melhor regulamentação em Portugal tem feito parte do esforço de reforma e modernização do Estado, atinentes ao cumprimento dos compromissos da Agenda de Lisboa. Com base nos indicadores do relatório “Doing Business 2011” do Banco Mundial, avalia-se a performance relativa de Portugal face a uma selecção de países, em três dimensões chave do ambiente regulamentar: os procedimentos, os custos e a demora burocrática, considerados determinantes para o ambiente de negócios e qualidade de vida dos cidadãos. Esta análise comparada revela que apesar dos notáveis progressos dos últimos anos, existe ainda caminho a percorrer, não só ao nível da própria melhoria da regulamentação, mas também do funcionamento interno da Administração Pública e do Estado, no que diz respeito a tornar mais eficiente e célere a decisão de processos administrativos e judiciais. É premente diminuir a demora procedimental relacionada com as transacções internacionais de bens, o licenciamento, o pagamento de impostos, a resolução judicial de disputas comerciais e os processos de falência de sociedades.

The development of better regulation policies in Portugal has been integrated in the State´s reform and modernization effort, geared towards the accomplishment of the compromises portrayed in the Lisbon Agenda. Based on the World Bank´s “Doing Business 2011” report, we appraise the Portuguese performance comparatively to a selection of relevant countries, in three key dimensions of the regulatory environment: bureaucratic procedures, costs and delay, considered as determinants of the doing business environment and citizen´s quality of life. This comparative analysis shows that despite the notable progress of the last few years, there is still progress to be made, concerning not only improving regulation in itself, but also the functioning of the Public Administration and the State, calling for a more efficient and prompt resolution of administrative and judicial processes. It is urgent to curb the excessive procedural delay in international transactions of goods, licensing, tax payments, judicial resolution of commercial disputes and firm bankruptcy.

This research is motivated by the idea of Smart ASN which was introduced by the government as a step to face the industrial revolution 4.0. The government must face the industrial revolution 4.0. The apparatus must adapt to technological transformation. The purpose of this research is to explore critically the roots of the Smart ASN idea. This research method uses PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses). The results show that the Smart ASN idea still has an inherent problem that is not yet optimal use of information technology. In other words, the Smart ASN idea does not have a solid foothold. The result of the alternative analysis that needs to be done is to optimize the presence of the millennial generation by 1) Providing jobs that are in accordance with their competencies and potential; 2) Provide opportunities to open perspectives and learn new knowledge in work through various methods; 3) Providing space for the new idea; 4) Building a humanistic work culture; and 5) Providing opportunities for capacity building for young apparatuses. Meanwhile, to support the management of human resources, the idea of ASN Corporate University can be implemented to achieve the goal of Smart ASN.

Bureaucracy quite literally translates into rule by public office (‘bureau’). The anthropology of bureaucracy can be seen as falling under two broad approaches. Firstly, there is an expanding corpus of work that concentrates its attention on explaining how different bureaucracies – from different arms of the state to NGOs to supranational organizations – actually function; what their ‘inner worlds’ are like; and why and how they produce the results they do. The second approach can be described as one that looks at how bureaucracies monitor or audit themselves as well as how they are pushing for self-reform. From a time when bureaucracies were almost entirely neglected by anthropologists due to a (mis)perception of them as disenchanted Weberian iron cages of modernity, there is now a far keener awareness of the operations of bureaucratic structures and demands. Nowhere is this more evident than in the critical awareness of bureaucratic demands and constrictions within Euro-American Universities.

Los antropólogos dedicados a los estudios poscoloniales adoptan cada vez más una perspectiva histórica y recurren a los archivos, aunque esta actividad tiende a ser más extractiva que etnográfica. Los documentos son todavía fragmentos que se examinan en silencio para confirmar la invención de ciertas prácticas coloniales o recalcar reivindicaciones culturales. Sin embargo, la extracción del contenido de comisiones, informes y otras fuentes rara vez presta atención a su disposición y forma particular. Es necesario cambiar el enfoque del archivo-como-fuente al archivo-como-objeto. Este artículo, sostiene que los archivos se deben considerar no como lugares de recuperación del conocimiento, sino de producción de conocimiento, como documentos legales y sitios de la etnografía del Estado. Este enfoque exige un compromiso continuo con los archivos como agentes culturales de producción de “hechos”, de taxonomías en desarrollo y de la autoridad estatal. Aquello que constituye un archivo, qu...

This study explores the implications of different approaches to performance management forinspection work and regulatory outcomes. It assesses to what extent variations in methods forcontrolling discretion explain why in some cases regulatory inspectors limit themselves to thenarrow boundaries of their formal mandate, while in other cases they work collaboratively withinspected firms and other organizations to develop innovative strategies that solve complex regu-latory and business problems. After reviewing alternative approaches to the management of dis-cretion, I present a natural experiment that offered an opportunity for controlled comparisons oftwo current attempts to reconcile bureaucratic performance with accountability: New PublicManagement and Experimentalist Governance. Case comparisons in the area of labor inspection inBrazil – involving severance payments, fraudulent cooperatives, and safety in construction –suggest that these two approaches to the management of regulatory bureaucracies produce con-siderably different inspection strategies and regulatory outcomes. The different accountabilitymechanisms and investigation str ateg ies inspired by each of these approaches create different setsof incentives with direct effects on inspectors’ motivation and their ability to resolve compliance problems.

This article examines the everyday lives of Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica to understand the temporal aspects of illegality produced by immigration law. Two sets of temporary measures highlight the temporality of both law and illegality. First, frequent legal reform, temporary immigration measures, and the bureaucratic labyrinth of immigration administration create a sense of Costa Rican immigration law as temporary. The ongoing temporary character of law and the forms of immigrant illegality it generates create uncertainty about the boundaries between legality and illegality among migrants in Costa Rica. Second, Nicaraguans in Costa Rica respond to the indeterminacy of the law and their economic and social position in relation to it through their own temporary measures. These measures constitute two forms of waiting: first, immigrants feel " locked up " by the shifting legal and administrative complexities of immigration; and second, they create quasi-legal ways to navigate immigration law during the long process of legalization of their status.

This study aims to analyze the criticism of local government public services in Indonesia. Complex problems with public services that often occur in services at the local government level. This is because the local government is an extension of the central government to provide rights and obligations in meeting the needs of the community as citizens. This study uses descriptive qualitative research methods to analyze in depth related to criticism of public services in local governments. The data obtained through 25 local and national online news and 25 national journal articles. The results of the analysis of this study indicate that the causes of criticism of public services are; 1) Undeveloped Performance Culture; 2) Incompetent human resources for apparatus, 3) Overlapping tasks, 4) Rule-based or bureaucratic mindset, 5) lack of understanding of standards. This study aims to analyze criticisms of local government public services in Indonesia. Complex problems with public services...

Bureaucratic autonomy is one of those concepts that have fascinated the scholars of both public administration and political science for a long time. Such fascination inspires the scholars to carry out research from diverse perspectives on different aspects of bureaucratic autonomy. However, such diversified literatures fail to produce consensus among the scholars over the meaning, definition, nature, measurement mechanism, etc. of bureaucratic autonomy.

It is a widely accepted truth that the Indian state suffers from a serious crisis of implementation capability. Despite widespread recognition of this crisis, there is remarkably little analytical work on how the Indian state works, particularly at the level of implementation. We know very little about the everyday practices of local bureaucrats, the decision-making systems within which they function and the organizational culture and norms that this fosters. Such an understanding is critical both to unpacking the roots of this implementation failure as well as to understanding how reform efforts are institutionalized, interpreted and implemented on the ground. Crucially, it can offer insights into understanding why the implementation crisis persists and under what conditions this can be reversed.

Our research is an attempt to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing an attempt by the Government of Bihar (GoB) to adopt an alternative pedagogy tool in government schools to improve the quality of learning as part of a larger reform effort called the ‘Mission Gunvatta,’ initiated in the 2013-14 academic year. The pedagogical strategy was based on homegrown experiments that challenged mainstream assumptions about classroom organization and teaching based on set curricula. Critically, it was designed to strengthen local administrative capacity to support schools from the bottom up.

Through detailed qualitative interviews and time-use studies of Bihar’s education administrators, this study points to the critical role played by organizational culture and resultant perceptions and practices of frontline administrators in interpreting, articulating and implementing reform choices on the ground. In our analysis, the successes and failures of service delivery reforms are as much about appropriate policy design choices, fostering innovation and leadership as it is about the interplay between reform objectives and the every-day practices of those tasked with implementing reforms. This, we argue, is the key missing link in contemporary understanding of public institutions and service delivery reforms in particular.

The purposes of this academic article were to ,that Firstly, review of knowledge in public administration, It can be categorized into 4 paradigms which are (1) the traditional public administration paradigm (2) a new public management paradigm (3) a new public service paradigm and (4) a new public governance paradigm. The Secondary, Review progression in the development of the Thai public administration system, It can be categorized into 5 periods which are (1) reform the Thai bureaucracy during the reign of King Rama III(1448-1470) (2) reform the Thai bureaucracy during the reign of King Chulalongkorn(1868-1910) (3) reform the Thai bureaucracy in 1933 (4) reform the Thai bureaucracy in 2002 and (5) Guidelines for the reform of the Thai bureaucratic system according to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 2017, moreover, to find the problems and reasons for reformed the Thai Bureaucracy.

The development of platform capitalism and the digitization of labor processes have enabled scholars and the public to describe the contemporary organization of work giving particular emphasis to the role of algorithms. Through document analysis, interviews, participant observation and a direct work experience in two Amazon distribution centers, the article argues against the myth of the algorithmic organization of work. In order to do so, it proposes questioning the centrality of algorithms in management, locating them within a broader system of rules and practices. Rather than relying on concepts such as algocracy (Aneesh, 2006, 2009), the article tries to retrive and revisit the ideal type of bureaucracy in a «Pluralist» meaning (Gouldner, 1954; Burawoy, 1979; Edwards, 1979), putting it to the test of empirical analysis of the labor process.



Keywords: labor process, algorithmic management, platform capitalism, bureaucracy

吐魯番隨葬衣物疏中五道大神與果願大德比丘解題

中文摘要        "版權所有 引用請註明出處"
        他界觀科層化現象，意即將他界的架構想像為與現世中國官僚制度相對映的信仰概念，普遍被學者視為是中國宗教裡的一個重要特徵。中國宗教中他界觀科層化現象，自漢代起，最早具體呈現在前漢與後漢墓葬如遣策、地券以及鎮墓文，其後為道教、佛教吸收，發展成在喪葬儀式中所使用的牒文等。本文研究在吐魯番所發現六、七世紀高昌時期現存最早佛教墓葬衣物疏形成的起源。雖然經過一千多年，六、七世紀高昌時期佛教衣物疏中，佛教法師與他界五道大神聯繫的文書形式內容，與現代台灣佛教喪葬使用的三寶司牒文相較，仍存在相當程度的類似性。雖然根據史料，在四、五世紀甚至更早以前佛教已盛行於吐魯番地區，不過在高昌時期以前，吐魯番地區的墓葬卻極少發現關於佛教的文物。以往學者如馬雍以為這可能是因為佛教只盛行於上層貴族之故。  根據衣物疏的內容與形式，韓森 (Valerie Hansen) 認為這些吐魯番佛教衣物疏，不僅是佛教僧侶介入信眾墓葬的證明，同時也顯示佛教也由中國傳入吐魯番。  這些學者解讀吐魯番地區墓葬的論點，基本上是建立在墓葬中顯示的宗教觀與死者生前的宗教信仰應該是一致的前提下。
        不過，在本文中，我質疑這個前提是否適用於所有佛教徒的墓葬。我認為在探討佛教徒的墓葬時，有必要先釐清兩個重要的議題 第一：佛教教理與中國墓葬傳統相容性的問題。特別是佛教在印度與中國發展早期，在面對不同的環境以及文化條件時，如何處裡死者遺體的態度與方式。第二：印度與中國佛教僧侶在喪葬儀式中的角色。包括佛教僧侶在喪葬儀式中的主要工作，以及僧侶與葬儀人員及死者家屬在葬儀中的互動。
          我的研究顯示，最初，佛教僧人在喪葬儀式的主要角色就是誦經迴向功德給死者。在處理死者遺體的議題上，早期印度佛教中，因應不同環境條件，有不同處理死者遺體的方法。印度並沒有類似中國式的土葬葬儀，而在印度象徵尊貴的火葬，要到唐宋時期才逐漸被中國人接受，不過，這種在印度，因應不同狀況，有不同方式處理死者遺體的彈性態度也出現在六朝時期的重要偽經，《灌頂經》中。關於喪葬議題，《灌頂經》提到：只要是在依附佛教信仰的前提下，中國式的喪葬儀式傳統可以被視為是正確的喪葬處理方式。以在五世紀北涼時期吐魯番墓葬中發現的北涼王沮渠蒙遜之妻彭氏為例，她極可能如其夫婿及家族，也信仰佛教，不過在其衣物疏及墓葬文物中，並未發現有與佛教相關者。但是，這並不意謂在她的喪葬儀式中一定沒有佛教僧人的參與。可能佛教僧人有為死者誦經迴向功德，只是這樣的角色不一定能具體顯現在中國式的墓葬中。
          其次，關於高昌時期佛教衣物疏，有兩個問題已經困擾學者多年。第一，許多衣物疏都是由署名果願的僧人來聯絡他界的五道大神，不過由於最早與最晚提到果願的衣物疏相隔近一世記，所以，有些學者們懷疑果願可能是某種神聖稱謂，而非真有其人。第二，衣物疏中經常有語意片斷不完整文句，其中部分死者，特別是女性姓名常有留白、不詳的情況。在分析這些高昌時期佛教衣物疏時，過去學者有兩個基本的態度: 第一，佛教衣物疏是佛教僧人終於介入中國式墓葬儀式的證明。第二，他們傾向選取較完整正確的樣本研究，並視其他語意不全的樣本是因書寫者中文能力不足之筆誤。
        然而，高昌時期衣物疏中，僧人的出現並不意謂他們取代原先衣物疏中葬儀專家的角色。因為衣物疏本身陪葬物的內容還是必須有葬儀人員介入，所以這些佛教衣物疏所隱含的葬儀互動架構，應該不僅僅是建立在佛教僧侶以及信眾雙方間的互動，這個架構應該還包括葬儀專家在內的三角配合關係。在我的研究裡，我認為我們不能將那些在高昌衣物疏中，常見的死者或僧人之身份留白、語句顛倒不完整或語意錯誤單純視為是書寫者的錯誤。事實上，這些錯誤顯示反而為我們理解葬儀的互動架構提供許多線索。因此，不同於以往學者，傾向只選取少數內容較完整的衣物疏或墓葬為對象，並試圖將之解釋為處理高昌佛教衣物疏的較正確做法，我選取四個分別出土兩個以上衣物疏的家庭墓葬，作交叉分析比較，並輔以其他有特殊情形的個別衣物疏。我發現，雖然整體來說，高昌佛教衣物疏的書寫者對當中與五道大神聯繫的文書內容有一定程度的共識，但是他們之間對於文書內容的宗教目的、意義、忌諱似乎存有幾種不同的詮釋，有些甚至有可能是出自於誤解。即使是有出土佛教衣物疏的墓葬，有些似乎不見得實際上有佛教僧人的介入，它們的存在，有可能只是被葬儀人員當作是流行的或是具有避邪功用的陪葬物。換句話說，在墓葬的三角架構裡，三者之間的互動模式是有多元的可能而非只是依照某個單一模式。而且，在這個三角架構裡，葬儀人員或專家往往扮演著解讀這些吐魯番佛教衣物疏的關鍵角色。

This paper describes the arrival of a man-eating leopard in a small Himalayan town in India and the local state's subsequent struggle to control the big cat. By focusing on what went on within the apparatus of the state during this period, this paper attempts to contribute to the study of modern time in bureaucracy. It argues that the startling inefficiencies in the effective governance and regulation of the big cat stemmed from a clash of various social times that were unfolding simultaneously. It outlines five distinct forms of social time that were in play during this period, which led to long periods of waiting and allowed for the articulation of a searing critique of the Indian state by town residents. Ultimately this paper contributes a rethinking of current theories of bureaucratic time that focus on the production of disempowered waiting, risk analysis, and anticipation. Instead it argues that a study of low-level bureaucrats and citizens shows that a central task of bureaucracy is to attempt to mediate conflicting forms of social time. Moving away from accounts of bureaucratic indifference, this paper depicts failure as an impasse arising out of attempts to bring incommensurable forms and representations of time into congruence. These failures importantly imperil the legitimacy of bureaucrats and can lead to a radical critique of the state.

Star and Griesemer’s concept of boundary objects has become a central analytic framework in the fields of science and technology studies (STS), computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), information science, and organizational studies. Scholars have also begun to extend the original boundary object concept in useful ways: for example, to boundary agents and organizations, emphasizing the active nature of translation or communication between networks, organizations, and social worlds. These insights have for the most part not carried over into scholarship on information technology and organizational reform in the public sector, and still less to DG reform efforts outside of the global north. The present paper develops a suite of boundary concepts – objects, agents, and organizations – and connects these to core problems in DG scholarship. Our empirical focus is on DG reform efforts in Thailand – in particular, tensions and challenges surrounding ongoing efforts to develop interoperable and government-wide e-Document systems and practices.

ICTs are frequently looked to as a missing link between traditional bureaucracy and the modernization of public administration and service delivery. Through the empirical research in the Thai public sector, we find that there is a fundamental gap between the design and normative goal of ICTs and their real world implementation. The structures of power are frequently retained or even reinforced by those who hold budgetary administrative, and authoritative roles and consequently get to make decisions about the development and use of ICTs to facilitate their administrative and managerial goals. While on a discursive level ICTs in Thailand have been projected to counter traditional practices and streamline governance as part of a broader administrative reform since the 2000s, we find that the practice is far different. Situating our work in the theoretical traditions of organization studies and computer supported collaborative work, we discuss how the Thai computerization projects add a valuable case to the vast literature on technology adoption. We also use the case to illustrate the value of this literature in growing work on governance and technology adoption within ICTD circles.

This article aims at offering a framework for analysing party patronage and state politicisation based on game-theoretic reasoning. It is argued that in order to reveal the main causal mechanisms behind these phenomena, one can focus on the cooperation between political parties analysis based on the model of prisoner’s dilemma. The article identifies four sets of obstacles to party cooperation in Central and Eastern
Europe: unstable and polarised party systems; “the rules of the game” legitimising party patronage; dense party networks and their building through patronage; and insufficient regulation and weak enforcement of the merit principle in state administrations. The influence of these causal mechanisms in the post-communist countries can be explored through historical process-tracing and other methods. Finally, the article proposes several country-specific hypotheses for the empirical study of party patronage and state politicisation in Lithuania.