Gupta conducted ethnographic research among officials charged with coordinating development programs in rural Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on that research, he offers insightful analyses of corruption; the significance of writing and written records; and governmentality, or the expansion of bureaucracies. Those analyses underlie his argument that care is arbitrary in its consequences, and that arbitrariness is systematically produced by the very mechanisms that are meant to ameliorate social suffering. What must be explained is not only why government programs aimed at providing nutrition, employment, housing, healthcare, and education to poor people do not succeed in their objectives, but also why, when they do succeed, they do so unevenly and erratically.
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Gupta conducted ethnographic research among officials charged with coordinating development programs in rural Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on that research, he offers insightful analyses of corruption; the significance of writing and written records; and governmentality, or the expansion of bureaucracies. Those analyses underlie his argument that care is arbitrary in its consequences, and that arbitrariness is systematically produced by the very mechanisms that are meant to ameliorate social suffering. What must be explained is not only why government programs aimed at providing nutrition, employment, housing, healthcare, and education to poor people do not succeed in their objectives, but also why, when they do succeed, they do so unevenly and erratically.
Imprint | Duke University Press |
Country of origin | United States |
Series | A John Hope Franklin Center Book |
Release date | July 2012 |
Availability | Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days |
First published | July 2012 |
Authors | Akhil Gupta |
Dimensions | 235 x 156 x 26mm (L x W x T) |
Format | Paperback |
Pages | 368 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-8223-5110-8 |
Barcode | 9780822351108 |
Categories | |
LSN | 0-8223-5110-2 |