The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy

by Graeber, David
ISBN: 9781612195186
4 (1)
Availability:
$8.99
Used - Trade Paperback - 9781612195186

Available Offers

Pickup at {0} Out of stock at {0} Check other stores
FREE -
Ship to Me
$3.99 - Get it Jul 16 - 19
Only 1 left

Overview

From the author of the international bestseller Debt: The First 5,000 Years comes a revelatory account of the way bureaucracy rules our lives

Where does the desire for endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy come from? How did we come to spend so much of our time filling out forms? And is it really a cipher for state violence?

To answer these questions, the anthropologist David Graeber--one of our most important and provocative thinkers--traces the peculiar and unexpected ways we relate to bureaucracy today, and reveals how it shapes our lives in ways we may not even notice...though he also suggests that there may be something perversely appealing--even romantic--about bureaucracy.

Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, The Utopia of Rules is at once a powerful work of social theory in the tradition of Foucault and Marx, and an entertaining reckoning with popular culture that calls to mind Slavoj Zizek at his most accessible.

An essential book for our times, The Utopia of Rules is sure to start a million conversations about the institutions that rule over us--and the better, freer world we should, perhaps, begin to imagine for ourselves.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Graeber, David
  • ISBN: 9781612195186
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.20 x 0.90
  • Number Of Pages: 272
  • Publication Year: 2016
Language: English

Customer Reviews

Rating Snapshot

5 ★   0%
4 ★   100%
3 ★   0%
2 ★   0%
1 ★   0%
4
1 Ratings

0

0% Would Recommend
0 Recommendations

Review Images

Sort by:
Filter by:

  • Had it up to here with bureaucracy?

    Jennifer P. - 6 years ago

    In this 2015 release from anthropologist David Graeber, the author reveals the origins and inner workings of the bureaucratic structures that have come to define much of modern life. Graeber reveals the complex layers of power that dominate the West by analyzing the institutions that constitute modernity. Also, he tells of the development of science fiction ideology and the inefficient nature of a social structure that advertises its efficiency. Highly recommended for those interested in social, political, and cultural/critical theory, as well as fans of the Frankfurt School and modern thinkers like Byung-Chul Han and Jean Baudrillard.

    HPB Staff Review