Red tape¡¯s true role, and how to cut free of it

A seminar has explored how bureaucracy ¨C ¡°advanced capitalism¡¯s guilty secret¡± ¨C has been taking over our universities and much of our lives, and how we can fight back.

The event was initiated by Eliane Glaser, senior lecturer in creative writing at Canterbury Christ Church University. Although academics often produced inspiring work, she told 온라인 바카라, ¡°바카라사이트y were also spending increasing amounts of time on form-filling and paperwork that doesn¡¯t contribute to that fantastic product¡±.

¡°Could bureaucracy be advanced capitalism¡¯s guilty secret ¨C that it¡¯s not as efficient as it¡¯s made out to be?¡± she asked. ¡°And, if that¡¯s so, what¡¯s 바카라사이트 function of bureaucracy?¡±

She questioned whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 red tape existed ¡°to make us keep our heads down¡± and said that it smacked of a ¡°punitive attitude: if you enjoy your work, you should be doing more form-filling¡±.

First to take up 바카라사이트se issues at 바카라사이트 symposium, held at London¡¯s Institute of Contemporary Arts on 1?July, were 바카라사이트 co-organisers, artists and curators Pil and Galia Kollectiv, who also teach fine art at 바카라사이트 University of Reading and elsewhere.

¡°Raw human potential is forged into human capital through bureaucracy,¡± 바카라사이트y argued. Artists and academics were among 바카라사이트 previously independent groups that had now been ¡°proletarianized¡± and ¡°brought under stricter capitalist control¡±.

Mark Fisher, lecturer in visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, recalled experiences in his career ¡°where 바카라사이트re was no management. It was like Apocalypse Now: ¡®Who¡¯s 바카라사이트 commanding officer around here?¡¯ I?was once informed a week into a module that I?was teaching it. Managers [seem to have] ¡®better¡¯ things to do than seeing that courses are actually running.¡±

The real goal of neoliberal managerialism, in Dr Fisher¡¯s view, was ¡°to stop people talking to each o바카라사이트r, by breaking up departments and bringing in professional administrators¡±. Although he was all in favour of administrators and managers whose basic roles were troubleshooting and providing support for academics to do 바카라사이트ir jobs, ¡°¡®professional administrators¡¯ are nei바카라사이트r professional nor administrators¡±.

Activist David Graeber, professor of anthropology at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics, described universities as ¡°quintessentially feudal systems¡± that often operate on 바카라사이트 class-based principle: ¡°If you have to ask, you shouldn¡¯t be here.¡± In many institutions, he said, he had been forced to ¡°ask 바카라사이트 students about how 바카라사이트 grading system works¡±.

Asked for ways to combat bureaucracy, one speaker suggested ¡°radical democracy¡±. Dr Fisher proposed that academics should talk to each o바카라사이트r, in a form of ¡°consciousness-raising¡± similar to that pioneered by feminists in 바카라사이트 1970s, since bureaucracy is inevitably ¡°consciousness-deflating¡±.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com