Governance by artifacts: Theory and evidence on materiality of administrative burdens

• Published date: 01 November 2024
• Author: Muhammad Azfar Nisar,Ayesha Masood
• Date: 01 November 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13821

CONCEPTUALIZING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Governance by artifacts: Theory and evidence on

materiality of administrative burdens

Muhammad Azfar Nisar | Ayesha Masood

Suleman Dawood School of Business,

Lahore University of Management Sciences,

Lahore, Pakistan

Correspondence

Muhammad Azfar Nisar, Suleman Dawood

School of Business, Lahore University of

Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.

Email: azfar.nisar@lums.edu.pk

Abstract

Administrative burden research has contributed to improved understanding of

citizens’experiences while accessing state services. However, the significance of

the material infrastructure within which citizen–administrator interactions take

place remains largely absent from this line of research. To help address this

research gap, this article uses ethnographic data to discuss the influence of mate-

rial and virtual artifacts in bureaucratic offices on the administrative burden faced

by citizens accessing social services. This significance of artifacts is further

unpacked along their material, symbolic, and aesthetic dimensions. Our findings

suggest that the instrumentality of certain artifacts (or lack thereof ) can dispropor-

tionately decrease accessibility and usability of bureaucratic spaces for certain

social groups thereby augmenting their administrative burden. Moreover, artifacts

symbolizing power, prestige, and administrative easing are reserved for spaces

occupied by the social elite while the underprivileged groups are relegated to

bureaucratic spaces characterized by a general neglect of aesthetics and symbol-

ism of decay.

Evidence for practice

•The design, architecture, and logistics of bureaucratic offices can significantly

influence administrative burdens faced by citizens accessing state services.

•Differences in physical, educational, and other abilities of citizens accessing

material and virtual administrative spaces must be taken into consideration

while designing them to make sure they are usable and accessible to everyone.

•Declining functionality and reliability of material and virtual artifacts may pro-

vide early indications of bureaucratic systems struggling to cope with chronic

neglect of the social services sector in developing countries.

•Administrative burdens can be inscribed in the physical architecture and mate-

rial arrangements within bureaucratic spaces which are experienced as alien and

unwelcoming by some groups.

•Analysis of the interrelationships between bodies, space, and aesthetics is critical

for a comprehensive understanding of citizen experiences while accessing state

services.

INTRODUCTION

The study of administrative burden of public policies—

the financial, temporal, and psychological costs experi-

enced while accessing state services—has become one of

the most vibrant research streams within public adminis-

tration (PA), especially for scholars interested in the

citizen–state relationship. Scholars have made multiple

contributions about its formal (Baekgaard et al., 2021;

Moynihan et al., 2015; Moynihan et al., 2016) and informal

(Nisar, 2018; Peeters, 2020) antecedents, its unequal distri-

bution (Carey et al., 2021; Chudnovsky & Peeters, 2021;

Heinrich, 2016), and citizen resources and strategies help-

ful in contesting onerous public policies (Christensen

et al., 2020; Masood & Nisar, 2021; Nielsen et al., 2021;

Peeters & Campos, 2021). While these multiple lines of

inquiry have made important contributions, like most

other work on the citizen–state relationship, materiality

Received: 17 January 2022 Revised: 29 February 2024 Accepted: 26 March 2024

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13821

1052 © 2024 American Society for Public Administration. Public Admin Rev. 2024;84:1052–1066.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar