Sentiments of Crisis: A Catalyst for Bureaucratic Transformation and Digitalisation

Abstract This paper proposes the concept of »sentiment of crisis« as a collective affective and cognitive response that can trigger rapid institutional change in, for example, state bureaucracies. Timm Sureau argues that the refugee crisis 2015 in Germany led to an administrative crisis within the IT department of Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), triggering a shared sentiment of crisis among its employees. Leveraging Turner’s theory of ritual, Sureau examines how this sentiment created a transitional phase during which old bureaucratic procedures were temporarily suspended and new technological innovations were introduced. Failing to attract sufficient IT staff, BAMF resorted to outsourcing programming and maintenance to external IT companies. The post-crisis ›new normal‹, therefore also included a quasi-permanent dependency on IT companies. Drawing on Blumenberg’s concept of technicisation, Sureau demonstrates how this process of institutional change produced a new, seemingly self-evident reality, where recently introduced technologies – and dependencies – became accepted as a matter of fact. The paper contributes to understanding the complex interplay between crises, collective emotions, technological innovation, and institutional change.