Please Sign Here Documents, Signatures, and Anxieties in a Chilean State Programme

Abstract

Drawing on one year of ethnographic fieldwork with state officials implementing a development programme for Indigenous farmers in southern Chile, I show how anxieties are generated in a context of increased accountability and labour precarity and how the materiality of bureaucracy plays a role in this process. By showing how state officials hired under flexible fixed-term contracts deal with documents and signatures, I challenge the notion of the indifferent bureaucrat. Rather than portraying state officials as disinterested or indifferent, I illustrate how those in unstable job positions depend on generating an official paper trail to secure ongoing employment. Ethnographically, the article highlights the affective dimensions of bureaucratic practices, emphasising how the pressure to meet deadlines and ensure the timely validation of documents produces anxiety, and shapes the everyday experiences and futures of these officials.