Attenzionare: riflessioni semiotiche sulla burocrazia

Starting from the definition of the Italian term “attenzionare”, this contribution presents a semiotic reflection on bureaucracy. Drawing on dictionary lemmas and studies on this concept proposed in various fields of the human sciences, the analysis identifies and describes three tensions (respectively, between collectivity and hierarchy, between power and compliance, and between functionality and formality). It then concludes that a “healthy” version of bureaucracy rests on a balance between these opposing poles, and that semiotics can be a useful resource for detecting discourses and practices that instead reflect imbalances, and consequently for seeking remedies.