How ‘Natives’ Work: Political Judgement and Cohesion Through Ritual Interaction Among Ministers

Perri,

doi:10.1111/padm.12205

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 42 publications

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“…The work of Goffman (1967) establishes the role of apparently minor quotidian rituals in sustaining much wider social or political commitments. Former British prime minister Harold Wilson spent considerable effort in deciding on the seating plan for cabinet meetings (6, Perri 2016), appreciating that the success or failure of larger arguments might flow from a judicious positioning of debaters within an order of ritual interaction (Collins 2004). That which is well-ordered in the microcosm is a basis for achieving order in larger social contexts, as Mary Douglas convincingly argues in relation to food and hospitality (Douglas 1982).…”

Section: The Kamajei Ebola Task Force Committeementioning

confidence: 99%

Keeping Ebola at bay: public authority and ceremonial competence in rural Sierra Leone

2022

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Ebola Virus Disease struck Sierra Leone in May 2014. An international response was instrumental in ending the epidemic by December 2015 and has been extensively documented. Less attention has been paid to local responses. Here, we focus on a case in which there was no infection despite high infection in neighbouring areas. This brings into focus the role of customary public authority in implementing successful controls. We pay particular attention to the activities of a chiefdom Ebola Task force committee chaired by the Paramount Chief. Meetings were characterised by protocol and ceremony, but ‘face time’ served to reinforce, in ritual terms, important messages about quarantine and social distancing. The committee's pronouncements had illocutionary force. Local volunteers translated this ceremonial message into practical action to block imported cases. The analysis of ceremonial competence, we conclude, opens a window into how public authority addresses developmental shocks in Africa.

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Section: The Kamajei Ebola Task Force Committeementioning

confidence: 99%

Keeping Ebola at bay: public authority and ceremonial competence in rural Sierra Leone

2022

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Introduction to the Symposium

Perri

Swedlow

2016

Public Administration

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This symposium showcases diverse contributions that a particular institutional theory of cultural biases makes to public administration and policy research. Bridging and integrating these subfields, the theory offers powerful explanations for the ways in which institutional processes drive policy‐making. Developed initially by Douglas using Durkheimian theory, Hood and Wildavsky made the theory increasingly influential in public administration and policy. Today, the theory has several variants which nevertheless share common core elements. We briefly survey this institutional theory's contributions to the study of public administration and policy before describing its central claims, analysing the uses of its variants in the symposium articles, and identifying their key advances. We conclude with challenges and promising developments in efforts to conceptualize, operationalize, and test the theory in public administration and policy research.

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Robust, resilient, agile and improvisatory styles in policymaking: the social organisation of anomaly, risk and policy decay

Perri

2022

policy polit

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This theory development article employs neo-Durkheimian institutional theory to present a fresh understanding of policy styles in the policy process. Calls for resilient, robust, agile and improvisatory policymaking are not readily compatible with each other. Each of these styles carries risks and each generates anomalies. Each tends to decay over time. Governments should therefore expect risks of inconsistency and decay in policymaking shaped by these styles. The article argues that these styles, and their risks and tensions, and the trajectories of their decay all arise from the contrasting forms of informal social organisation among policymakers in which they are cultivated. These forms of social organisation give rise to distinct types of bounded rationality, which shape decision-making differently in each ordering.

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How ‘Natives’ Work: Political Judgement and Cohesion Through Ritual Interaction Among Ministers

Cited by 5 publications

References 42 publications

Keeping Ebola at bay: public authority and ceremonial competence in rural Sierra Leone

Keeping Ebola at bay: public authority and ceremonial competence in rural Sierra Leone

Introduction to the Symposium

Robust, resilient, agile and improvisatory styles in policymaking: the social organisation of anomaly, risk and policy decay

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