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Mundane governance: ontology and accountability

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: Oxford University Press 2013 New YorkDescription: xi, 282 p. Includes bibliographical references and indexISBN:
  • 9780198864448
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 338.6 W6M8
Summary: What is to be made of the outcry when newly issued recycling "wheelie" bins are discovered to contain microchips for weighing and evaluating householders' rubbish? The angry accusations that speed cameras are generating excessive income for the government? The consternation at the measures taken by airports to heighten security in the wake of the increased threat of terrorist attacks? These increasingly widespread reactions to ordinary events and everyday phenomena share a common theme. They all embody concerns about how our lives are increasingly regulated and controlled with ordinary objects and technologies. This book takes these concerns as the starting point for exploring how relations of governance and accountability in contemporary life are organized around ordinary, everyday, pervasive objects and technologies. In contrast to the contemporary literature on governance, the book argues for the importance of examining how accountability relations are enacted on the ground, concerning mundane objects and technologies. In particular, it is crucial to understand how governance and accountability are mediated through material relations involving ordinary everyday objects and technologies. The book argues that the key to understanding governance is to focus on the political constitution at the level of ontology rather than just on the traditional politics of the organization, structure, and human compliance. The term ontology is used here to draw attention to the social and cultural processes whereby the nature and existence of ordinary things come to matter. The argument is developed concerning a wide variety of empirical materials drawn from three main areas of everyday life: waste management and recycling; the regulation and control of traffic (especially speed cameras and parking); and security and passenger movement in airports. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mundane-governance-9780198864448?q=Mundane%20governance&lang=en&cc=us#
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Item type Current library Item location Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Vikram Sarabhai Library Rack 22-B / Slot 924 (0 Floor, East Wing) Non-fiction General Stacks 338.6 W6M8 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 202380

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 : Mundane Governance: a Profound Question of Political Philosophy?
Chapter 2 : Wrong Bin Bag: the Situated Ontology of Mundane Governance
Chapter 3 : Classification as Governance: Typologies of Waste
Chapter 4 : Why Govern? Is, Ought and Actionability in Mundane Governance
Chapter 5 : Structures of Governance
Chapter 6 : Compliance: Does Mundane Governance Work?
Chapter 7 : Spaces of Governance
Chapter 8 : Mundane Terror
Chapter 9 : Disruption
Chapter 10 : Conclusion
References
Index

What is to be made of the outcry when newly issued recycling "wheelie" bins are discovered to contain microchips for weighing and evaluating householders' rubbish? The angry accusations that speed cameras are generating excessive income for the government? The consternation at the measures taken by airports to heighten security in the wake of the increased threat of terrorist attacks? These increasingly widespread reactions to ordinary events and everyday phenomena share a common theme. They all embody concerns about how our lives are increasingly regulated and controlled with ordinary objects and technologies.
This book takes these concerns as the starting point for exploring how relations of governance and accountability in contemporary life are organized around ordinary, everyday, pervasive objects and technologies. In contrast to the contemporary literature on governance, the book argues for the importance of examining how accountability relations are enacted on the ground, concerning mundane objects and technologies. In particular, it is crucial to understand how governance and accountability are mediated through material relations involving ordinary everyday objects and technologies.
The book argues that the key to understanding governance is to focus on the political constitution at the level of ontology rather than just on the traditional politics of the organization, structure, and human compliance. The term ontology is used here to draw attention to the social and cultural processes whereby the nature and existence of ordinary things come to matter. The argument is developed concerning a wide variety of empirical materials drawn from three main areas of everyday life: waste management and recycling; the regulation and control of traffic (especially speed cameras and parking); and security and passenger movement in airports.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mundane-governance-9780198864448?q=Mundane%20governance&lang=en&cc=us#

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