Bureaucratic Sludge Audits: An examination of a design-based intervention in Public Administration research and practice

Public defence of PhD thesis by Rasmus Fredslund Stenderup.

 

This dissertation explores two central questions in public administration: How do public employees experience the feeling of bureaucratic friction in their work, and how can design as a methodological approach contribute to research and practice in the public sector?

Based on this, the research question is posed: “What can we learn by field-testing bureaucratic sludge audits as a design-based intervention?”

Drawing on a conceptual-historical analysis of bureaucratic friction and a case study of caseworkers in Danish municipal jobcentres, the dissertation examines how bureaucratic tasks and procedures are experienced as burdensome. It develops an empirically grounded concept of bureaucratic sludge and a typology based on the dimensions of formalization, meaningfulness, and relationality.

A design-based intervention – a sludge audit – is developed and tested, demonstrating its ability to identify concrete manifestations of bureaucratic sludge, generate new ideas, and foster reflection among public employees. At the same time, the analysis highlights methodological and structural limitations to broader organizational change.

The dissertation contributes new knowledge about bureaucratic work and the potential of design methods in public administration.

 

Assessment committee

  • Professor Lene Holm Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)
  • Professor Albert Meijer, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
  • Professor Jostein Askim, University of Oslo, Norway

Supervisors

  • Professor Peter Dahler-Larsen, University of Copenhagen 
  • Associate Professor Mogens Jin Pedersen, University of Copenhagen (co-supervisor)