This text examines the wide range of issues involved in bureaucratic language, illustrating the complex inter-relationships between language, bureaucracy and social control. The authors use real life, varying data in their analysis, taken from institutions in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium.

ForewordAcknowledgements1. Language, bureaucracy and social controlBureaucracyBureacracy and social controlLanguage and bureaucracySynopsis2. Bureaucratisation and debureaucratisation in contemporary societyIntroduction: what discourse practices are construed as bureaucratic?Bureaucratisation and debureaucratisationChanging discourse practices as action and as processThe analysis of language useThe language-situation dynamicSocial control as an area of struggleConclusion3. The pragmatics of information exchange in bureaucratic discourseIntroduction: information exchange as a focus of studyBureaucrats seeking information and clients giving itInterpreting information exchange in pragmatic termsReversing the roles: clients seeking information and institutions avoiding giving informationConclusion: regulated information exchange and social control4. Role behaviour in discourseIntroductionModes of talk and multiple role behaviourDiscourse rolesShifting role relationships and the construction of social identitiesRole perception in discourseConclusion5. The client's perspective: clients as citizensIntroductionChallenging the inhuman face of bureaucracyCreating an edge over the institutionTalking to bureaucrats in order to maintain non-clienthoodClient's response to institutional failure: the case of lost mailConclusion6. The bureaucrat's perspective: citizens as clientsIntroductionAlarming the clientMaintaining bureaucracy through official documents: forms and leafletsConclusion7. The discourse of mediation: bureaucrats' dilemma and clients' wisdomIntroductionSocial workers attemting to redress the imbalanceCounselling institutionsInstitutional monopolies over mediationConclusion: socio-economic struggles over multi-tier bureaucracy8. Instead of a conclusionBibliographyAppendicesIndex