“A slim, sprightly, acerbic attack on capitalism's love affair with bureaucracy."
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
“[The Utopia of Rules] should offer a challenge to us all. Should we just accept this bureaucracy as inevitable? Or is there a way to get rid of all those hours spent listening to bad call-centre music? Do policemen, academics, teachers and doctors really need to spend half their time filling in forms? Or can we imagine another world?"
—Gillian Tett, Financial Times“Graeber wants us to unshackle ourselves from the limits imposed by bureaucracy, precisely so we can actually get down to openly and creatively arguing about our collective future. In other words, yelling at the book is not just part of the pleasure of reading it. It's part of the point."
—NPR
“Graeber’s most interesting claim...is that our expressed hostility toward bureaucracy is at least partly disingenuous: that these thickets of rules and regulations are a source, to quote from his subtitle, of 'secret joys' for most of us."—Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian [UK]
“Something like an intellectual hike led by an eccentric guide: a winding set of anecdotes, schematics, juxtapositions, and assertions... He is a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate."—Slate
“Thought-provoking."—Boston Globe
“What intense pleasure this book gave me, despite the dull topic: bureaucracy.”—Peter Richardson, The National Memo
“[A] fizzing, fabulous firecracker of a book… Our contemporary bureaucrats are revealed, in fact, as none other than you and me, forever administering and marketing ourselves."—The Literary Review
“Anthropologist Graeber is one of our wildest thinkers [see Debt: The First 5,000 Years], and in this book, he takes on the topic of bureaucracy, arguing that what we think of as the root of our civilization — capitalism, technology, rules and regulations — may just be what’s keeping us in chains."
—Flavorwire, 10 Must Read Books for February“Inspiring and full of surprising facts… This is ultimately a book about how the systems we invent come to appear natural. We treat our world as though it is a fact, but actually, we produce it. This is not a new idea, but it’s one of the most hopeful we’ve got. It opens the door to change.”
—Maclean's [Canada]
“A throughly argued, funny, and surprising new book."—Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire
“Persuasive... Graeber’s aim was to start a conversation on the boondoggles and benefits of bureaucracy. In that regard, he has ticked all the right boxes."—The Observer [UK]
—John Gray, The Guardian [UK]
“Admirable and convincing...In his irrepressible, ruminative way, Graeber stands in the comic tradition of Walt Whitman, archy and mehitabel and James Thurber. This is the chorus with which to laugh the trousers off corporate management."—Times Higher Education [UK]
“Interrogates aspects of bureaucratic modernity that are normally unexamined causes of annoyance… Stylish and witty."—Steven Poole, New Statesman [UK]
“Graeber is an American anthropologist with a winning combination of talents: he’s a startlingly original thinker...able to convey complicated ideas with wit and clarity."—The Telegraph [UK]
“A sharp, oddly sympathetic and highly readable account of how big government works—or doesn’t work, depending on your point of view."—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Debt: The First 5,000 Years:
“Written in a brash, engaging style, the book is also a philosophical inquiry into
—The New York Times Book Review
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
—Jesse Singal, Boston Globe
—Library Journal
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The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy is a 2015 book by anthropologist David Graeber about how people "relate to" and are influenced by bureaucracies.[3] Graeber previously wrote Debt: The First 5000 Years and The Democracy Project, and was an organizer behind Occupy Wall Street. Graeber signed a book deal with Melville House toward the end of 2014, and The Utopia of Rules was released on February 24, 2015.[3] Original cover
Graeber describes the contemporary era as the "age of total bureaucratisation," in which public and private bureaucracies, now so intertwined as to be effectively indistinguishable, have become the main mechanisms for Wall Street profits, and describes how bureaucratization brings the threat of violence [through legal and police enforcement] into almost every aspect of daily life in wealthy countries.[1] Graeber argues that bureaucracies are no longer analyzed or satirized as they were in Catch-22 or The Castle. The book centers on the "political implications" of bureaucracies and Graeber's solutions.[1]
Graeber notes that Americans largely dislike bureaucracies, but while they are not motivated to change bureaucracies, he thinks they should be. He makes an urgent call to remove the bureaucratic limits that hamper creativity. He argues that the "order and regularity" of bureaucracy is more harmful than valuable, and elaborates that rules do not apply equally in practice and are more "instruments through which the human imagination is smashed and shattered".[1]
Tomas Hachard wrote for NPR that the book is part academic and part radical politics. He noted the appearance of "Baudrillard and bell hooks" and other academic language. Hachard wrote that Graeber's non-bureaucratic Occupy politics also undergirds the book's arguments. Hachard wrote that Graeber's points are "almost always insightful, thought-provoking", and worthy of their "serpentine" reasoning around topics including the history of philosophy, linguistics, and science-fiction films.[1] The reviewer felt that the book paired well with Nikil Saval's book on the "evolution of offices", Cubed, which followed the balance between office creativity and office rules.[1]
The book's questions prompted the theme of the 2016 Taipei Biennial, in which artists produced work on how institutional bureaucracies structure human imagination.[4]
- ^ a b c d e f Hachard, Tomas [February 26, 2015]. "Please Fill In This Form In Triplicate Before You Read 'Utopia Of Rules'". NPR. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^ a b "The Utopia of Rules". Bowker Books in Print. Retrieved February 28, 2015. [Subscription required.]
- ^ a b Yin, Maryann [December 5, 2014]. "David Graeber Lands Deal With Melville House". GalleyCat. Adweek. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^
- "Taipei Biennial Releases 2016 Artist List". Artforum. July 7, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
- Harris, Gareth [December 16, 2016]. "Swiss scholar Corinne Diserens to curate Taipei Biennial". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
- Bratishenko, Lev [March 23, 2015]. "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". Maclean's. 128 [11]: 61.
- Burkeman, Oliver [March 11, 2015]. "Capitalism was supposed to reduce red tape. Why is bureaucracy worse than ever?". The Guardian.
- Cosic, Miriam [May 16, 2015]. "David Graeber's Utopia of Rules tackles bureaucracy". The Australian. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
- Cunningham, Guy Patrick [January 21, 2016]. "On Bureaucracy and the Left". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
- Doctorow, Cory [February 2, 2015]. "David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". Boing Boing. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
- Fajgenbaum, Emma [July–August 2016]. "Audit Culture". New Left Review. II [100]: 144–151.
- Fay, Stephen [July 8, 2016]. "Politics [Rev. of The Utopia of Rules]". The Times Literary Supplement [5910]: 30–31.
- Gatenby, Mark [November 2015]. "Book Review: David Graeber The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". Organization Studies. 36 [11]: 1599–1602. doi:10.1177/0170840615590746. S2CID 147572596.
- Gray, John [May 6, 2015]. "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber – review". The Guardian.
- Hanlon, Gerard [February 2016]. "Total bureaucratisation, neo-liberalism, and Weberian oligarchy". Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization. 16 [1]: 179–191.
- Herzog, Lisa [April 3, 2016]. "'Bürokratie': Nur lästig". Die Zeit [in German].
- Inglis, Fred [May 14, 2015]. "Quick, to the Batmobile! [Rev. of The Utopia of Rules]". Times Higher Education [2203]: 50–51.
- Isquith, Elias [March 5, 2015]. "'I found myself turning into an idiot!': David Graeber explains the life-sapping reality of bureaucratic life". Salon. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
- Jeffries, Stuart [March 21, 2015]. "David Graeber interview: 'So many people spend their working lives doing jobs they think are unnecessary'". The Guardian.
- Kindley, Evan [May 29, 2015]. "Bashing Bureaucracy". Chronicle of Higher Education. 61 [37]: 13.
- Komporozos-Athanasiou, Aris [March 2016]. "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy". The British Journal of Sociology. 67 [1]: 173–175. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12166.
- Larrinaga, Carlos [2016]. "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules". Social and Environmental Accountability Journal. 36 [3]: 209–210. doi:10.1080/0969160X.2016.1235401. S2CID 157617657.
- McKenzie, Lisa [July 9, 2015]. "Summer reads 2015". Times Higher Education [2211]: 48–49.
- Morris, Iain [May 17, 2015]. "The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy review – paperwork as a tool of repression". The Observer.
- Nelson, Sarah [May 15, 2015]. "The Utopia of Rules – David Graeber". Full Stop. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
- Piliavsky, Anastasia [March 1, 2017]. "The wrong kind of freedom? A Review of David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules". International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 30 [1]: 107–111. doi:10.1007/s10767-016-9246-2.
- Graeber, David [March 1, 2017]. "A Response to Anastasia Piliavsky's The Wrong Kind of Freedom? A Review of David Graeber's The Utopia of Rules". International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 30 [1]: 113–118. doi:10.1007/s10767-016-9248-0.
- Poole, Steven [May 7, 2015]. "The industry of Me". New Statesman. 144 [5261]: 49.
- "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber". Kirkus Reviews. December 22, 2014.
- Tett, Gillian [February 20, 2015]. "Time to tear up the paperwork". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 5, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
- Umney, Charles [December 1, 2015]. "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules". British Journal of Industrial Relations. 53 [4]: 816–818. doi:10.1111/bjir.12158.
- Weinberg, Jonathan [April 2017]. "Bureaucracy as Violence". Michigan Law Review. 115 [6]: 1097–1116.
- Yarbrough, Marshall [November 3, 2015]. "The Misery of the General Reader: Fukuyama and Graeber". Full Stop. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
- Zantvoort, Bart [May 30, 2015]. "Rev. of The Utopia of Rules". Marx & Philosophy Review of Books. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
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