On bureaucratic waiting. A Simmelian approach to a liminal time

Abstract

Waiting is both a type of experience and a form of interaction. The contours assumed by the former are marked by the dynamics and features that characterize the latter. This essay addresses the waiting to which we are usually subjected when carrying out procedures in any of the instances and dependencies of the bureaucratic apparatus. Returning to the analytical contributions of Georg Simmel, a relational approach to this phenomenon is attempted, highlighting three of its basic dimensions: time, space, and interaction or reciprocal action. The essay finishes with some considerations regarding what waiting represents for modernity and, more generally, for human existence.