Stewart CLEGG, Martin HARRIS and Harro HöPFL (2011). Managing Modernity: Beyond Bureaucracy? Oxford: Oxford University Press

Abstract

Bureaucracy and Beyond

Kafka's novel The Castle recounts the story of an unlikely business trip. A land surveyor named K. is summoned to a small provincial town which is ruled over by the shadowy occupants of a castle on its outskirts. On arrival, K. is told that he has been erroneously summoned to the village. Being very diligent, K. tries in vain to gain access to his contact in the castle, but this proves very difficult and K. must stay in the town. During this stay, he finds that the castle seems to be ruled over by a set of indecipherable rules and regulations which pervade the life of the village. What is most surprising is that the occupants of this shadowy castle are almost never seen. The villagers hold the bureaucratic castle in high regard, but it remains utterly imperceptible. At the end of the novel, despite his ongoing attempts to enter the castle and fathom its operations, K. remains locked out. For some, The Castle is a stark reminder that our quest for God is ultimately a doomed enterprise, but for others, it reminds us that our inaccessible modern god is, in fact, bureaucracy. Our holy texts are the endless rules and files that govern our lives. Our priests are the shadowy bureaucrats who administer those files. Despite our best efforts to understand all of this, there is no sense to be found. This means that bureaucracy becomes an object of awe and hatred in equal measure.