In this episode of Anthrotalking we talk to Matthew Hull, who is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Hull started off his research in Islamabad with an interest in architecture and the built environment. Gradually, his attention shifted toward the role of files and documents in government practices. We discuss how to methodologically approach files and documents as agentive objects, and what city administrations are like to do fieldwork in. Hear Hull explain the challenges, and opportunity, for anthropology and ethnography to engage in bureaucratic processes, in particular as they become all the more organized through large databases.