Paper short abstract:

Fieldwork in the U.S. will be used to develop the concept of the bureaucratic sublime in order to shed light on: (1) the vertiginous affects induced by the state's manipulation of administrative scale; and (2) the quotidian projects of endurance and transcendence these affects set in motion.

Paper long abstract:

In the United States, the development of laws regarding state transparency and citizen engagement have generated a series of vertiginous situations that unsettle many of the core assumptions about liberal governance. In 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management released for public comment a controversial policy document guiding the development of very-large-scale renewable energy projects in the California desert. Replete with complicated maps and obtuse technical jargon, the document was over 12,000 pages long; public comment was due just 30 days after it was first circulated. In Florida, more recent controversies regarding the everyday matters of local government such as building roads and opening schools have spurred a series of marathon public meetings lasting—in some instances—in excess of 24 hours. Based on fieldwork in rural California and urban Florida, this paper will develop the concept of the "bureaucratic sublime” in order to explore: (1) the vertiginous affects induced by the settler-colonial state’s active manipulation of administrative scale; and (2) the quotidian projects of endurance and transcendence these affects set in motion. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the phenomenological politics of “transparency” that takes seriously the violence woven into apparently progressive attempts to involve citizens within the machinery of state decision-making.