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Affective bureaucratic relations: File practices in a European deportation unit and criminal court

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  • Lieke Wissink
  • Irene van Oorschot

Abstract

Indifference has long been acknowledged as a crucial affect to the continuation of bureaucratic practices. Recently, the production of more diverse and layered affective modes in bureaucratic institutions is increasingly highlighted. However, how affects differ within and between sites saturated with ‘paper work’ remains an understudied terrain. In this paper we focus on the relations that are formed in daily file-work within two state institutions: a Deportation Unit and a Criminal Court. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork in order to show that a) affects are locally produced in the relations that are mobilized in file-work b) these affects are unevenly produced within and between different bureaucratic practices. By comparing two different bureaucratic settings yet related in the subjugation they demand of the bureaucratic referent of their practices, we aim to put forward how differences in bureaucratic practice come with their own specific affective modes, showing that bureaucratic practices are saturated in, and thrive on, diverse affects of varying intensity. Bureaucratic action is a deeply affective practice, within which the relationship between caseworker, casefile, and the file’s referent is carefully calibrated. With this intervention we position ourselves within scholarship that complicates perceived dichotomies between rationality, still often associated with bureaucracy, and affect. Developing sensitivities towards such variety of bureaucratic affect offers nuanced perspectives on file-work and what kind of sovereign power the relations that are made through file-work subsequently allow to be reproduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Lieke Wissink & Irene van Oorschot, 2021. "Affective bureaucratic relations: File practices in a European deportation unit and criminal court," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(5), pages 1049-1065, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:1049-1065
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654420977475
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Merje Kuus, 2019. "The terroir of bureaucratic practice: Everyday life and scholarly method in the study of policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 617-633, June.
    2. Grace Carswell & Thomas Chambers & Geert De Neve, 2019. "Waiting for the state: Gender, citizenship and everyday encounters with bureaucracy in India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 597-616, June.
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