Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on 18 months of observation and participation in the work of the policy office of the US Department of Energy, the author fully investigates the conditions that create the paradox and the positive as well as the negative implications of the process of information production.
Trade Review"It's a gem-clear, well-written, and sharply focused. It addresses important issues that cross disciplines, outlines its arguments well, and provides useful examples drawn from observations and interviews. It presents a persuasive conception of decision making in an organizational context." -Peter K. Manning ,Michigan State University "A splendid book... What I find most attractive is Feldman's uncanny ability to boil down a most uncertain matter to a swiftly moving interpretive tale that gets past disciplinary interests to wrestle with policy formulation in the warrens of a government bureaucracy. It is a book that anyone seriously attempting to account for the making of policy will have to address." -John Van Maanen ,Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Table of ContentsPart I. Introduction: 1. The paradox of producing information 2. Interpretation in decision making and policy making 3. Method and data Part II. What Bureaucratic Analysts Do: 4. Report writing 5. tasks that contribute to report writing 6. The work of bureaucratic analysts Part III. Contribution to Policy Making: 7. Rationality, interpretation, and inventories 8. Properties of the inventory 9. Problem sovling versus interpretation: from the bureaucratic analysts' perspective Part VI. Implications: 10. Bureaucratic analysts and their work 11. Organizing analysts 12. The production of information Appendices Bibliography Index.
