| 2025-2028
Administrative Limbo: Analyzing the Psychological and Socio-political Effects of State Inaction.
Abstract
Numerous crises are emerging that revolve around waiting for the state. During such crises, individuals become stuck in government procedures over outcomes vital to their lives, often for years on end. Current theories in public administration have not been developed to explain the time-based dynamics of prolonged state inaction. LAPSES addresses this gap by proposing a new conceptualization of administrative limbo. We investigate administrative limbo using both a psychological and a socio-political lens. Psychologically, we propose that administrative limbo entails experiences of prolonged uncertainty, chronic stress, and lost perspective towards life. We also propose that individuals cope with these experiences differently, leading some to engage (e.g. through activism behavior), while others avoid further stress by giving up. From the socio-political perspective, we examine how activism behavior can coalesce in collective action aimed at forcing government intervention to resolve limbo (through e.g. strategic litigation). However, we also expect that such (belated) state intervention may paradoxically extend the time individuals spend in their states of limbo. Government responses may take years to develop, leading to a vicious cycle that exacerbates individual-level experiences of administrative limbo. LAPSES will contribute vital theoretical tools to analyze experiences of administrative limbo, supported by extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence.
Funding
- FWO Research Foundation Flanders - Senior postdoctoral fellowship
Project team
- Fellow: Kleizen Bjorn
- Promoter: Van Dooren Wouter