Suchergebnisse

The paper focuses on the changing ethical template that programmes of `responsive' or `entrepreneurial' managerial reform require of civil servants. Contemporary demands for responsive public management contain two emotional injunctions to public bureaucrats. The first, derived from populist doctrines of political right, requires bureaucrats to be responsive to the needs of their `clients'. In the name of `recognition' and the `politics of care', for example, it is thought vital to inculcate in bureaucratic conduct a sense of `compassion' or close identification with others' feelings. Secondly, in the name of responsiveness to political superiors and the delivery of their policy objectives, bureaucrats are expected to exhibit `ownership' of and identification with particular policies. They are required to be committed champions for and enthusiastic advocates of those policies. Both of these injunctions are deemed to be more in tune with democratic principles and the currents of contemporary ethical culture (`diversity' or `human rights', for example) than what is represented as the unlamented Weberian world of rule-bound hierarchy. The paper seeks to question this assessment.

In this provocative new study, Paul du Gay makes a compelling case for the continuing importance of bureaucracy. Taking inspiration from the work of Max Weber, du Gay launches a staunch defence of `the bureaucratic ethos' and highlights its continuing relevance to the achievement of social order and good government in liberal democratic societies. Through a comprehensive engagement with both historical and contemporary critiques of bureaucracy and a careful examination of the policies of organizational change within the public services today, du Gay develops a major reappraisal of the so-calle

The realms of consumption have typically been seen to be distinct from those of work and production. This book examines how contemporary rhetorics and discourses of organizational change are breaking down such distinctions - with significant implications for the construction of subjectivities and identities at work. In particular, Paul du Gay shows how the capacities and predispositions required of consumers and those required of employees are increasingly difficult to distinguish. Both consumers and employees are represented as autonomous, responsible, calculating individuals. They are consti

Explores the process by which historically specific "self- interested" behaviors were conceptualized. It is contended that "self- interested" behavior is in fact real, but it is not a fixed & timeless human essence. It is demonstrated how, in a particular historical era & in relation to particular objectives, a specific type of self-interested personhood was invented. The historical context in which this mode of "self-interest" appeared as a normative creed whose dissemination was characterized as a possible medium for salvation is examined. The singular notion of "self" promoted by this creed, & its performative function as a strategy intended to establish social pacification, is emphasized. The chapter's overall aim is to suggest a more sympathetic treatment of the historical plurality of self-interested behaviors. K. Coddon