An Interactionist Perspective on Irony in the Street-level Bureaucracies of Beijing

Audin, Judith. An interactionist perspective on irony in the street-level bureaucracies of Beijing. In Hans Steinmüller, Susanne Brandtstädter (eds.), Irony, cynicism and the Chinese State. Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2016, pp. 101-121. ISBN :978-1-138-94314-8 (relié).

In her chapter on residents’ committees in Beijing, Judith Audin describes the ‘games of truth and lies’ in which local residents and the employees of residents’ committees’ are engaged. While both are concerned with maintaining a façade of propriety and successful work, in private they sometimes admit to the failings of the bureaucracy and to the necessary informalities that maintain the bureaucracy itself. Audin goes on to discuss the contradictory self-perceptions of government employees, who are somtimes extremely frustrated with their jobs, yet also happily (and sometimes enthusiastically) resigned to continuing in the same jobs. They meet with similar ambiguities from the local residents, and these ambiguitis are often presented in indirect forms. [p. 10 de l’Introduction]

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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