Reviving Doctoral Imagination – Bureaucracy, Play and Conviviality

n this article, relying on both a conceptual approach and on<br/>composite narratives, it is proposed that David Graeber’s<br/>anthropological critique of bureaucratic processes can be fruitfully<br/>applied to understand how bureaucracy acts to shape doctoral<br/>education and doctoral subjectivities. Framing bureaucracy as the<br/>management of structural violence, the article will explore its<br/>potential role in reinforcing the status quo and replicating structural<br/>inequality. Methodologically, the article will rely on plural composite<br/>narrative vignettes and ethnographic fiction, built from experiences<br/>and conversations across different cultures, countries and<br/>organisational contexts. These vignettes will highlight the paradoxes<br/>and impact of doctoral bureaucracy and its inherent, complex<br/>relationship with structural violence, focusing on themes of epistemic<br/>constraints, warped accountability and ongoing colonial legacies. To<br/>advance alternative visions, the contribution will then draw both on<br/>these narrative vignettes and on philosophers of play and conviviality<br/>(DeKoven, Huizinga, Carse, Illich). The article will articulate its<br/>theoretical contribution in terms of the potential role of play,<br/>imagination and conviviality in heightening vigilance against the<br/>reproduction of structural inequalities and violence, and opening<br/>avenues to radically re-think doctoral education.