The Social Production of Indifference

Herzfeld argues that "modern" bureaucratically regulated societies are no more "rational" or less "symbolic" than the societies traditionally studied by anthropologists. He suggests that we cannot understand national bureaucracies divorced from local-level ideas about chance, personal character, social relationships and responsibility. "Herzfeld's book is extremely ambitious an...

Herzfeld argues that "modern" bureaucratically regulated societies are no more "rational" or less "symbolic" than the societies traditionally studied by anthropologists. He suggests that we cannot understand national bureaucracies divorced from local-level ideas about chance, personal character, social relationships and responsibility. "Herzfeld's book is extremely ambitious and will be of interest to any anthropologist concerned with the study of bureaucracy, organizational and institutional control, symbols and their power, and social conflict...Thoughtful and challenging."--Helen B. Schwartzman, American Ethnologist

迈克尔·赫兹菲尔德是世界著名的社会人类学家，目前是哈佛大学人类学系资深教授。他出版过超过十本以上专著，发表论文100多篇。他的近期研究是以专书探讨与民族志影像纪录曼谷的文化遗产历史保存、以及义大利罗马的中国城都市发展计画。赫兹菲尔德教授同时还兼任哈佛大学都市计画与设计学院、哈佛大学中中心泰国研究学程、哈佛大学当代希腊研究的荣誉教授，以及荷兰亚洲研究中心文化遗产研究计画资深顾问。连煦：中央民族大学人类学博士，现任教于首都师范大学外国语学院。