ABSTRACT. In many ways, public services provided and rendered at ‘street-levels’ are ‘professional’, although the meaning of professionalism often remains rather ambiguous. In his talk, Mirko Noordegraaf will emphasize the importance of connecting the (academic and practical) discourses on street-level bureaucracy and professionalism. Informed by both conceptualizations as well as (societal) developments, he will refine both bureaucratic and professional logics, and relate these logics to changing societal landscapes. This gives rise to new emphases on connective street-level practices, that focus on and go beyond case treatment.

ABSTRACT. Developing employment services that are responsive to the needs of vulnerable unemployed poses a continual challenge for street level bureaucrats and management across Europe and beyond (van Berkel et al. 2017). The role of knowledge, derived from both research and practical experience, plays a pivotal role in addressing this challenge. However, there is still limited research on understanding the processes of knowledge mobilization (Davies et al. 2015). This paper explores a collaborative and innovative partnership spanning over more than four years, where a group of social science researchers, including the authors, closely collaborated with six municipalities to enhance responsive employment services through processes of knowledge mobilization (Larsen & Caswell 2022). This approach represents a novel perspective on innovation within the context of street level bureaucracy. Utilizing extensive ethnographic and qualitative data, primarily through interviews and observations, researchers engaged in repeated visits to the municipalities. They also established platforms for knowledge exchange in an explorative and innovative process. By coding this vast qualitative material, with a specific focus on how knowledge traverses between the realms of research and practice over time, the paper aims to contribute to the understanding of knowledge mobilization. The paper further aspires to address the implementation challenges associated with developing more responsive services in Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP) organisations in Denmark and beyond. The analysis delves into how knowledge is co-created in dialogues between frontline workers and researchers, how conceptual knowledge challenges and transforms practical understandings, and how dilemmas and problems in practice find their way into research. The findings suggest that co-creating knowledge has the potential to support the development of more responsive welfare services. It empowers frontline workers to cultivate collective, reflective practices and propel research towards deeper insights into the dilemmas of practice within the field of ALMP.

ABSTRACT. Title: Citizen encounters in public sector – a study of interaction between clients and case managers in allocation office in Norway.

Background: In Norway all municipalities have allocation office where important decision concerning people life situation are made. The study aims to promote knowledge about the interaction between applicants and case managers. Previous research on case management in allocation office in Norway within the Health and Care Services Act has been linked to the experience of case managers. This study focuses on the interaction, the roles and the meeting between the parties. What happens in meetings behind closed doors in the welfare state and how the life world from both parties appear. Important topics in this study are decision-making and user involvement. The overall research question: How do case managers conduct assessments in meetings with users who have applied for services under the Health and Care Services Act, and how is this process experienced by both case managers and users?

This is a qualitative study with participant observation and recordings from 20 map meetings. In addition, 20 interviews have been conducted after the meetings to explore both case managers' and clients experience from the meeting and subsequent decisions process.

The theoretical frame is from institutional theory and power theory, this is important to understand what`s happening in the relations between the case manager and the clients in the citizen meetings.

Preliminary founds: We observed a clear pattern of how the agenda is set for meetings and how case managers move the conversations forward. Clients emotional responses and the sharing of personal narratives playing a central role of shaping the meeting and setting the agenda.

Key words: Allocation office, citizen encounters, relationships, power, welfare state.

ABSTRACT. The positive deviance (PD) approach acknowledges that in any local setting, there are individuals with the same resources as everyone else, who exercise unusual practices that allow them to achieve better outcomes than others (Pascale et al., 2010). Similarly, organizations can accelerate creativity and innovation by learning from PD ‘outliers’ (Appelbaum et al., 2007) and by finding ways to enhance and diffuse successful behavioural strategies (Herington & van de Fliert, 2018). Rather than trying to solve others’ problems at a distance, PD is a process of social change that enables communities to self-discover the wisdom that already exists (Singhal & Bjurström, 2023), and to amplify it where it exists, by equipping people with the perspectives and skills necessary for recognizing and capitalizing on the unique yet successful practices (Wolfer & Wilson, 2019). Moreover, exploiting the knowledge embedded in PD involves addressing common local problems by mobilizing actors in the local community (Gofen & Weimer, 2020). PD therefore allows uncovering and enhancing innovation efforts. Current literature documents multiple outcomes from PD projects, for example, community empowerment, improved social networks, enhanced problem-solving capacity and greater mutual respect among stakeholders (Herington & van de Fliert, 2018). By applying a PD approach on street-level implementation, this study suggests considering street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) as a source for bottom-up innovation (e.g., Arnold 2015, Gofen et al. 2023) through co-creation processes. Specifically, the paper builds upon an in-depth case study of a Norwegian PD-project called Youth Inclusion in order to examine what facilitates SLBs’ capacity and opportunities to develop and implement new solutions by exploring and learning from PD? Shifting the focus to PD in street-level work aims at uncovering both practices and knowledge that potentially spark new policy ideas which have been so far overlooked in policy design (Gofen & Weimer, 2020).

ABSTRACT. Street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) play a crucial role in implementing social welfare policies and delivering services directly to citizens. Broad literature demonstrated the ways in which New Public Management (NPM) reforms have impacted the work of SLBs. Recognizing the various negative consequences that NPM posed on service provision, scholars and practitioners have been arguing that the emphasis on market supremacy, service efficiency, and effectiveness often results in greater hardship on citizens. Consequently, several competing approaches were suggested to overcome the shortages of NPM. In the particular case of social workers, critical social work (CSW) approaches were suggested as an alternative to NPM. This study aims to examine the values that influence street level managers’ (SLMs) imperatives regarding the everyday practices of SLBs, as these managers play a pivotal role in policy execution, directly and indirectly influencing the quality of public service provision. The study asks if and in what ways SLMs’ imperatives are embedded in NPM values, or the values of competing, more critical approaches. Considering the problems of social desirability and ‘rhetorical’ replies of interviewing managers, this study draws on SLBs’ perceptions of the values directing their managers’ imperatives, with a particular focus on managers’ imperatives regarding workers’ provision of personal, informal resources to low-income clients. The study examined the case of social work, as an ideal site to observe the manifestation of competing approaches. Based on in-depth interviews of 55 social workers in Israel, the analysis reveals that the values influencing contemporary social work practices, as reflected in the ways that these SLBs interpret their managers’ imperatives, are embedded in an NPM approach, more than in CSW approaches. The study discusses the ramifications of the findings for the delivery of welfare services, and the need to further address the consequences of contemporary managerial values for low-income populations.

ABSTRACT. Social workers working with vulnerable children reproduce their ‘traditional dilemma’ between control and reflexive approach. This dilemma is particularly relevant in the context of contemporary, neoliberal-oriented society. At the same time, the situation is accentuated by the fact that more than half of the clients are often perceived by the support workers as ‘unmotivated’. The presented article aims to present a way how social workers working with vulnerable children deal with the dilemma of using control and reflexive approaches by constructing the client's (un)motivation. On the basis of qualitative research carried out using semi-structured interviews, narratives implicitly associated with the unmotivated client and their influence on the nature of the social workers’ interventions were revealed. Based on the data analysis, a recommendation was made to strengthen the use of reflexive approaches in social work.

ABSTRACT. The regulation of access to social services is a task implemented mainly by social workers who act as street-level bureaucrats. It is a particularly complicated and tricky phase of fieldwork which can evolve into a take-up of the claimant, but can also lead to the activation of defense mechanisms of rationing - as described by Lipsky - that deny access not only as a consequence of needs assessment, but also because of organizational contradictions and unresolved professional dilemmas. In such a situation, a recurrent and complicated challenge for professionals is to balance attitudes and behaviors of care and support towards claimants with relational strategies more oriented towards control. These are often prevailing options, depending on the category of the potential client. It can be assumed that many social workers will prioritize an initial choice of care when dealing with minors at risk of abuse or maltreatment. On the contrary, for other claimants (such as those applying for economic benefits), gatekeeping strategies may prevail with a more stringent and defensive approach: it is the case where control may produce a preventive exclusion, not just because of specific regulations, but based on implicit practices shared within the organization, which show how an internal logic often takes priority. The aim of this paper is to present an interdisciplinary literature review on the initial access to social services, focusing on the tensions between care and control in this phase: the research fields of organizational sociology and social work will be mainly considered. The aim is to define a solid theoretical framework that will guide an empirical qualitative research that will be developed on this topic in a local municipality in Northern Italy.

ABSTRACT. In analysing the relationship between the State and the individuals it governs, the social sciences have focused on the professional side of the street level bureaucracy or on the interactions that take place there. This study therefore proposes to broaden the focus usually adopted and to question the relationships and expectations that jobseekers have with regard to the Public Employment Service (PES), a central institution of the welfare state: how do jobseekers perceive it? Are these perceptions marked by the dialectic of rights and duties currently in force within the PES? And what effects do they have on the expectations and attitudes of the unemployed, both towards employment and towards the institution? Following the Foucauldian analysis of governmentality that consider the people are not the simply recipients of public action, we are seeking to understand the relationships they have constructed with it. Our survey enables us to analyse the effects of this government of behaviour when individuals have internalised the norms and responsibilities - particularly in terms of activation - specific to their situation. It provides at least a partial answer to the question of how the governed cope with the mismatch between institutional discourse and actual practice. To shed light on these issues, we conducted a qualitative study based on 41 semi-structured interviews with unemployed people. This material allows firstly to distinguish three types of relationship with the institution, according to the distance from it, which, far from being random, can be partly linked to the socio-demographic characteristics of the unemployed (1). We then show that these relationships with the institution are likely to change over time, depending on the path taken (2) but also on the institutional discourse (3). Ultimately, the study reveals a disjunction between the promises made by the institution and the expectations of the unemployed.

ABSTRACT. BACKGROUND: To support labor market participation for persons with disabilities in Sweden, different kinds of vocational rehabilitation interventions, including evidenced-based methods such as Supported Employment(SE) are employed. However, quantitative findings have shown gender differences in these interventions. These quantitative findings have not been followed up by qualitative research to clarify the issue. OBJECTIVE: To explore participants’ experiences of participating in an SE intervention and the influence of gender on their experiences. METHOD: Semistructured interviews with 10 women and 7 men participating in SE in Sweden were conducted. Qualitative content analysis followed by a gender analysis were performed using the material. RESULTS: The participating men and women had different background characteristics. Overall, the participants shared the same experiences of SE. They valued a trustful relationship with the employment specialist and the diversified and individualized support from the employment specialist. Unlike the men, the women had experienced difficulties receiving SE from authorities, and when receiving SE, they expressed the value of a slow start, being challenged, and whole-life support. CONCLUSION: The findings might moderate the rapid job principle in SE and indicate the need to acknowledge that the path to employment might look different, depending on the participants’ gendered experiences and living conditions, for SE to be more successful for both men and women.

ABSTRACT. Public administration research suggested that citizens tend to evaluate public services negatively due to an “anti-public-sector bias” rooted in prevailing negative stereotypes of the public sector and public sector employees. Yet, recent studies on citizens’ perceptions of public sector employees and street-level bureaucrats indicate that stereotypical images of different types of professions substantially vary and are not always negative. These studies also highlight the multidimensionality and complexity of these stereotypical images. Yet, we still lack effective research tools for capturing and comparing the content and structure of different stereotypes. In this study, we contribute to existing research by proposing a novel theoretical and empirical approach for systematically exploring public sector stereotypes inspired by social psychology research (spontaneous stereotype content model SSCM). The proposed approach enables us to establish a more nuanced understanding of the essence of the diversity in stereotypical images affiliated with different public sector “entities” – employees, organizations, professions, and the public sector at large. We empirically validate and demonstrate this approach in the public sector context in Israel. We examine the spontaneous stereotypes associated with 15 different public sector “entities” gathered from an online survey among a representative sample of Israeli citizens (N=320). We further discuss the potency of the proposed approach in examining the interplay between different public sector stereotypical images and how they shape citizens’ perceptions and interactions with public sector employees and organizations.

ABSTRACT. Introduction to the topic: The number of old people in Italy is continuously increasing (projected to rise from 7 to 12 million by 2050), and simultaneously, their need for assistance is growing. Often, this need is fulfilled by women who provide a private response to the weakening of the welfare system and family support networks by migrating from their countries of origin (Sgritta, 2009; Charalambous, 2023). Consequently, the fragility of the state is the lack of necessary services, both for the old people with unmet service requests and for migrant women (Grignoli, Tramontano, 2021) in offering employment (care work), too often exposed to low quality and below-average compensation. Scientific Framework: Within this framework, old people seek solutions in entirely private domains by turning to family assistants. In 2022, there were 429,426 individuals in Italy employed as family assistants with valid contracts, of which less than a third were of Italian nationality (ISTAT, 2023). This role is often subject to sophisticated forms of exploitation, as demonstrated by some studies (WeWorld, 2022), and involves work that, despite its continuous expansion (Coletto, Guglielmi, 2014), remains inadequately protected, low-qualified, more susceptible to economic cycle fluctuations (Fullin, 2011), and is physically and emotionally demanding. Method and Results: The potential vulnerabilities of the welfare system, old people, and migrant women have been the subject of a study conducted in two regions of central Italy, Molise and Marche, within the research project Age-It (Ageing well in an ageing society). The initial findings of a qualitative exploratory study have allowed reflection on some socio-demographic and economic characteristics of the territory, the life paths of migrant women, and the deficiency of public welfare systems that fail to meet the demand for personalized assistance and the needs of the most vulnerable individuals.

ABSTRACT. Resettlement is considered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as one of three 'durable solutions' for refugees. Being a scarce resource, accessible only to a select few, refugees are increasingly required to meet specific criteria related to vulnerability and suitability for resettlement. This study addresses a critical research gap concerning the application of selection criteria within UNHCR operations in the Global South, with a focus on the discretionary practices of UNHCR caseworkers in Rwanda. The article deepens our understanding of how street-level bureaucrats’ practices influence which refugees receive 'welfare benefits' through resettlement, and who is left behind, by analyzing the implementation of resettlement policy in the context of refugee camps.

The procedure of selecting individuals for resettlement involves a delicate balance between the UN's eligibility criteria and the policies of the receiving states. Guidelines and policies are enacted by caseworkers who encounter complex cases, necessitating the use of discretionary power in the selection process. Drawing on interviews with eleven street-level bureaucrats involved in refugee camp selection processes in Rwanda and ten street-level bureaucrats in Norway, we use Street-Level Bureaucracy Theory to discuss how caseworkers in Rwanda deploy discretionary practices to navigate between fulfilling the admission criteria of resettlement states and the mandate of the UNHCR to advocate for the most vulnerable refugees. Caseworkers in Rwanda emerge as key actors in the selection process, exercising bottom-up power as policy implementers while striving to adhere to top-down policies. By shedding light on the dynamics between UNHCR guidelines and policies of recipient countries, this study offers perspectives of how the street-level bureaucrats find loopholes in the policies to create opportunities for their ‘refugee clients’ beyond the established guidelines. Thus, the work of the UNHCR caseworkers in Rwanda potentially influences the outcomes of policies created by the resettlement states.

ABSTRACT. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an acceleration in the digitalization of administrative processes at all levels of the state in Argentina. Digitalization has the potential to change central aspects of how street level bureaucracies handle tasks internally, how they communicate with citizens and management, and how they connect with other public organizations. Importantly, digitalization is also presented as a game changer by the authorities leading the change. In light of the deep and the accelerated changes brought up by digitalization, the goal of this paper is to study how street level bureaucracies in rural municipalities in Argentina reconfigure their practices with the introduction of digital technologies. Through a case study, we analyze the experiences of one of the municipalities that began implementing the Electronic Document Management Platform (GDE), a cloud-based software created and maintained by the federal government. The fieldwork includes in-depth interviews with municipal agents, municipal management, local press, municipal workers' unions and federal agents overseeing GDE implementations. The contribution of this research is twofold. First, it addresses a gap in literature by specifically focusing on street-level bureaucracies in rural settings in the global south, which remains an under-researched institutional context. Secondly, this study aims to contribute to a broader debate regarding the power of digital technologies to fundamentally change street-level bureaucracy’s activities, management reporting and citizen encounters. A look at the topic through the street level bureaucracy perspective allows us to focus on the main user of the technology, explaining how they redefine their practices taking into consideration how those bureaucracies are configured but also the characteristics of the technology and its implementation.

ABSTRACT. The Argentine social protection policy for children, the Universal Child Allowance (AUH), has stood out since 2009 as a milestone in the country's social policy development, by prioritizing standardization, automation, and objectivity. Therefore, it is expected that the AUH will embody a rigid bureaucratic mechanism that does not allow for failures, and where the mediation of bureaucratic agents does not take place. Yet, we argue that in marginalized areas, the AUH loses its automatic and systematic character when beneficiaries encounter impediments to accessing and remaining on this program. Hence, street-level bureaucrats from administrative, medical, educational, and informal bureaucracies become mediators, bridging the gap between AUH regulations and the specific needs of each community within the underclass. The analysis reveals that the absence of centralized control by the National Administration of Social Security (ANSES), as well as the Argentine state's inherent informality, grants street-level bureaucrats a degree of autonomy, tailored to penetrate local territories. Drawing on ethnographic research encompassing various bureaucratic layers involved in AUH implementation, this paper examines how these bureaucrats navigate within a structured approach policy, achieving public policy access for the underclass.

ABSTRACT. Hybridity in national social policy and governance can lead to implementation tasks that are difficult to reconcile. Social policies that strive for efficiency and cost reduction and also aim for investments in vulnerable people create demanding choices (Caswell, Nielsen & Larsen, 2023; Zacka, 2017). Social policy implementation studies often focus on the local interactions between street-level bureaucrats and clients, and tend to under-examine hybridity in national policy and governance (Larsen & Caswell, 2022; Rice, 2017). This paper connects the macro and micro levels by discussing hybridity in national social policy and governance and their influence on local implementation. The paper first introduces the concept of hybridity (Van Gestel, Denis & Ferlie, 2020), and applies it to the social policy objectives for income protection and labour market participation (Larsen & Caswell, 2022). It also discusses hybridity in welfare administrations, where governance principles based on hierarchy, market or networks occur simultaneously (Christensen & Lægreid, 2022; Van Gestel, 2023). Empirically, we analyse the impact of hybridity on local implementation based on cases from the Netherlands and Denmark; two different welfare administrations, but sharing new developments (e.g. co-creation) also relevant in other European countries. We build on our qualitative studies of innovation projects in recent years, to show how street-level actors have tried to design and implement new strategies to deal with hybridity in social policy. These include developing broader integrated services, working with employers and other partners, and involving citizens in implementation (Larsen & Caswell, 2022; Van Gestel, Kuiper & Hendrikx, 2019). Yet street-level actors also face traditional bureaucracy and a continued emphasis on efficiency and cost reduction, which poses difficult decisions for them. Our findings are related to the literature on hybridity and social policy, the pragmatic challenges in delivering effective social policy, and the implications for governance.

ABSTRACT. This chapter explores an emergent area in the social policy literature, namely, the topic of resilience. Resilience is currently at the forefront of a wide variety of national and supranational policy initiatives ranging from areas like twin transitions (climate and digital transformation) post-COVID-19 reconstructions, the robustness of democratic political systems, sustainability of local government structures, etc. Despite its many definitions, simply stated, resilience pertains to the ability of systems, organisations and/or actors to adapt to emergent circumstances (adversity) whilst maintaining function and a sense of (cultural) identity (c.f. Frigotto et al., 2022). The topic has, in recent years, attracted growing attention across the public sector, as a means of coping with increasingly complex and turbulent internal (sector) and external (societal) environments (Trondal et al., 2022).

In this chapter, we pose the question of whether resilience has been/is either an emergent or deliberate feature in European social policy literature in the last two decades (2003-2023). More specifically, we zoom in – through a systematic literature review – to definitions and theoretical approaches to resilience in the context of social policy implementation. More specifically, we investigate similarities and differences between fields of social policy implementation and contextual differences if any. Thematically, we seek to analyse the uses of resilience at three analytical levels: (a) a system feature of the social policy implementation process, (b) a legitimising factor of social policy implementation, and (c) the outcome of social policy implementation (pending on the available research). The chapter contributes to ongoing discussions regarding the distinctive nature of social policy implementation while illuminating key aspects underpinning the emergent resilience literature within public policy and multi-level governance.

ABSTRACT. In an era characterized by evolving paradigms of marketization and managerialism, professionalism within the public sector, including in welfare services, is undergoing major transformations. However, there is an ongoing scholarly debate on the essence of these transformations. While some see it as the erosion of public professionalism and its subjugation to economic logic, others suggest that public professionalism is not merely replaced or marginalized, but rather it is undergoing a reconfiguration process, making it more hybrid in nature.

Recent research has provided a complex picture of instances of both de-professionalism and re-professionalism, strategies of resistance and coping by professional street-level workers, and complex power relations between managers and professionals. Yet, this literature predominantly concentrates on the organizational level, often overlooking the regulatory means that often accompany the marketization and managerialism of public services -- through legal, administrative and contractual mechanisms.

To address this gap, the current paper investigates the re-structuring of professionalism under the regulatory state. Through an in-depth case study of the procurement of social services in Israel, the paper explores whether and how professionalism is incorporated into the contracting process. The findings highlight the centrality of professionalism in the procuring process, with policymakers actively embracing professional concepts and language to regulate the services. At the same time, professionalism is undergoing transformations and adaptations, including the incorporation of hybrid elements. The paper delineates the characteristics of this regulatory reconfiguration of professionalism, discussing its dynamics and impact on the meaning of professionalism.

ABSTRACT. The relationship between state and service users are changeing due to marketisation of services, including foster care. As in many Western European and anglophone countries, Swedish local child welfare authorities out-source recruitment and support of foster care services to independent foster care agencies (IFAs) (Vårdanalys, 2016). IFAs can be non-profit or public but a majority are for-profit organisations. From a few IFAs in the 1990ies (SOU 1994:139), there are now hundreds of IFAs in Sweden (Vårdanalys, 2016). There is limited knowledge about the foster care market that has developed. This article will take a broader perspective and analyse this market starting of with an extended background and further using multiple sources, including data from a large frame work agreement, statistical data on authorised IFAs over several years and interview data regarding social work professionals experience of the concrete services provided to visualise this market. Implications of the results will be discussed in regards to  the changing character of the Swedish welfare state in times of marketisation.

ABSTRACT. How and why may a new collaborative institution succeed when the others fail? This paper investigates the ways to create transformation which improves the quality of health system performance in a unique case of responsible (research and) innovation (R(R)I), drawing on a larger ten-year study of Swedish horizontal governance of integrating eldercare services. During the last decade, quality in ageing declined systematically in all 21 regions of Sweden—except for one region and all its eight municipalities of its social and healthcare system coordination body, where quality increased from worst to best—as measured by the proportion of unplanned readmissions to hospital among frail older persons living with multi-morbidity. Formed in 2015, Region Jämtland Härjedalen’s history of creative destruction of hospitals in the 1960s, demanded an accumulation of diffuse reciprocity to manage all patients by a single hospital covering an area larger than the whole of Denmark. The key administrative-professional and political leaders interviewed define and explain the quality change as being part of their responsible innovation, successfully implemented—due to prerequisites (member size, long-time experience, and geriatric scope) of the coordination body (collaborating research partner)—and through a hierarchy of collaborative capacity building. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, capacities included: necessity to build administrative capability for the new local healthcare system based on equity and sustainability, utilizing previously accumulated diffuse reciprocity; sufficiency to build professional capacity for participation, utilizing absorptive capacity and awareness to develop a new street-level bureaucracy agency culture from diffuse reciprocity, accumulated from finding it in one municipality in 2012; primacy to build the political capital needed to accumulate mutual trust from previously bolstered diffuse reciprocity as manifested by a new local-regional health and social care contract 2015. Of particular importance is the street-level bureaucrat’s absorptive capacity and knowledge agency learning from historical patterns.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, collaborative methods and applied research have gained traction in academia, policy, and practice. One example is the calls within Critical Migration Studies for new research-practice collaborations to allow multiple perspectives in the production of knowledge. This is particularly pertinent in Denmark, where the shift to temporary protection and return in Danish immigration and integration legislation creates new dilemmas and challenges in the relationship between refugees, volunteers, and municipal integration caseworkers. Based on our collaborative ethnography of voluntary services and social innovation initiatives in three Danish municipalities, this article engages with the question of how the paradoxical expectations of integration and return shape collaborative innovation to change social relationships and strengthen the agency of refugees. We draw on conceptualizations of collaborative methods as involving boundary work, while adding the new concept of ‘boundary obstacles’ to describe challenges that need to be overcome (as opposed to removed or avoided) to advance social innovation initiatives in the field of refugee governance. A thematic analysis of data from three collaboration groups consisting of local refugees, caseworkers, and volunteers, leads us to identify three such boundary obstacles. The first, politics, pertains to the scope of the proposed solutions and to de- and re-politicization processes in collaborative endeavors; the second, emotionality, refers to challenges of emotion and recognition in social innovation with vulnerable participants; and the third, power, describes the challenges and gains of social innovation involving multiple perspectives and positionalities. Based on empirical examples from the Boundary Work Project, a practice-research project carried out in collaboration between the Red Cross, DRC - the Danish Refugee Council, and researchers from the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies of UCPH, the article reflects on the prospects and challenges of social innovation and discusses ways to approach its obstacles.

ABSTRACT. Drawing on the case of child participation in the Danish Agency of Family Law, this paper explores the role of templates and onboarding programs in implementation of policies. Our empirical material consists of 100 anonymized child interview records, a group interview with 12 child social workers, and comprehensive empirical material on 25 cases. The latter includes notes from participant observations of child interviews, child interview records, and qualitative interviews with the child and the parents. In the analysis, we utilize an abductive approach, combined with Barads agential realism as our basic ontology (Barad 2007) and Harraways amodern model of analysis (Harraway 2013). This means that we analyze the frontline workers practice not as either compliance with, or resistance to, the policy and the implementation tools, but as navigation in the often-complicated ever-changing landscape of institutional practice, and thus as a multipatterned phenomenon displaying a range of practices. A main finding is that while the template and onboarding programs were intended to enhance child participation and empower children’s perspectives, high degree of compliance with these implementation tools showed to counter these policy intentions. Further the analysis demonstrates that this is particular evident in relation to some children. This is due to that the tools, in combination with professional and institutional truisms on children (in conflictual divorces), in practice installed norms for ‘the (in)competent and (not) trustworthy child behavior. As a result, some children’s participation is particularly restrained.

ABSTRACT. In the largest welfare service reform implemented in Finland to date, social, health, and rescue services were transferred from municipalities to the responsibility of the new regional entities called Wellbeing Services Counties 1.1.2023. This reform resulted in a plethora of administrative challenges, e.g., for policy implementing street-level workers. In my work, I study the discretion used by street-level workers in adult social work against the backdrop of this reform, utilizing Evelyn Z. Brodkin's (2021) theoretical framework of crises. The Welfare Services Counties reform is seen as an administrative crisis that can arise when a politically decided reform produces unplanned effects in an implementing organization. The research material was collected by means of focus group interviews with social workers from adult social work units in small and medium-sized municipalities in southwest Finland in 2022 and from the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland in 2023, which covers the same area as the previously studied municipalities. The research data was analyzed through content analysis by using Brodkin’s division of responses to crisis into (1) disrupted structural arrangements, leading either to realignment or entries/exits, and (2) disrupted routines subdivided into adaptation, resistance, and innovation/redirection. Results indicate the following disrupted structural arrangements because of the reform: Discretion has been transferred from street-level workers to supervisors and customer guidance groups, there is an increase in the number of supervisors, and, to some extent, a hiring of new assisting personnel without social worker training. Disrupted routines detected include: Unclear guidelines and information about which responsibilities belong to whom, and street-level social workers ensuring that clients receive services and benefits officially handled by others, based on using discretion in line with their professional judgment, or as previously practiced within the previous municipal context.

ABSTRACT. Our presentation will discuss findings from a national study on social workers’ engagement in policy-shaping processes and interventions to promote anti-oppressive organizations and practices in Italy. The international definition of social work (IFSW, 2014) assumes that social workers not only should promote social change and social justice, but also have agency, competencies, and enough power to tackle processes that produce oppression and social exclusion. Nevertheless, social workers do not act in a vacuum, but are, at least in Italy, most of the time employees of bureaucracies that through categorization processes embedded in procedures and policies profoundly influence the objectives and the quality of their work, with possible clashes between the professional and the organizational mandates. Against this background, the aim of our study was to explore social workers’ representations about a) their role in tackling oppression and discrimination, in the everyday practice within the social work agencies b) the organizational factors that seem to foster or hamper an anti-oppressive approach c) their strategies to influence policies or practices they consider oppressive. 12 focus groups were carried out in 2021, involving 118 social workers employed in different settings. Our findings reveal a gap between the “perceived role” and what professionals can actually do in their everyday practice, and shed light on tensions and ambiguities in everyday social work practice. Compliance and resistance often cover “grey areas”, that are not necessarily mutually exclusive, performed in more or less hedged strategies, generally aimed to influence the organizational contexts, in order to “humanize” bureaucracies that not rarely tend to invisibilize or misrecognize citizens’ needs. These results also allow to explore power relations within the social service agencies that foster or hamper social workers’ possibilities to foster social inclusion.

ABSTRACT. Encounters with the jobcentre are crucial moments for citizens receiving unemployment benefits. In these encounters, they can access resources such as information, moral support or opportunities to acquire professional qualifications (Clouet et al. 2022). Likewise, these encounters are instances of control. If citizens do not fulfil their obligations associated with benefit receipt, they face benefit cuts (Wright et al. 2019). Caseworkers as street-level bureaucrats play an important role in these encounters. They act as gatekeepers for access to resources and exercise discretion in dealing with sanctions. The outcomes of bureaucratic encounters, however, also depend on the capabilities and characteristics of clients. Attempts to identify what clients need in order to successfully interact with the public administration have so far focused primarily on skills and knowledge (Döring 2021; Masood/Nisar 2021). They do not account for potential barriers to mobilize these resources in the encounter, e.g. mistrust or shame, nor to under what conditions citizens’ knowledge and skills are recognized by caseworkers.

Our paper analyses bureaucratic encounters as being embedded in the relation between a state authority and citizens. We ask how citizens understand their role and their relation with the jobcentre, and how they experience, respond to and cope with difficult or burdensome aspects of this relation. We show that burdensome instances are, for example, linked to caseworkers’ attempts to shape citizens’ behaviour by defining what is appropriate and acceptable, to experiences of sanctions and sanctioning threats, and to situations when citizens are trying to access information and resources. From how citizens tell their experiences with street-level bureaucracy, we will systematize resources and barriers for bureaucratic encounters and thereby contribute to a concept of administrative capital developed from a clients’ perspective. Empirically, the analysis draws on qualitative interviews with recipients of basic income support in Germany, conducted between 2021 and 2024.

ABSTRACT. This contribution aims to analyse the relationship of the people who live in popular neighbourhoods with institutions: the more or less conflictual interactions, the lack of interactions, and the meanings attributed by the dwellers. The reflection stems from post-doctoral research carried out from a comparative perspective in two popular neighbourhoods, one in Turin, Italy, and the other in Marseille, France. In the two case studies, participant observation was carried out and biographical interviews were collected with some inhabitants without having the mediation of an institution as an entry point. This complicated access to the field but at the same time prevented the research subjects from perceiving the researcher as part of a specific institution. From a methodological point of view, this allowed the researcher to prioritise the point of view of the individual inhabitants without triangulating it with the institutional point of view, whereas usually the street-level bureaucracy approach focuses that point of view. Highlighting the side of interaction that usually has less space in public discourse can contribute to the advancement of the SLB’s field. Common to the two contexts - which have a strongly stigmatised image in public and media discourse - is, for example, the feeling of abandonment on the part of the inhabitants towards the institutions. In this general framework, what role do or can be played by street-level bureaucrats whose task it is to socialise citizens with the expectations of the state and who are often the first point of contact between citizens and institutions, in the eyes of the research subjects? The research project is part of the international research network Lower Classes and Public Institutions (LOCI) coordinated by Vincent Dubois, which involves scholars from different European and non-European countries and tries to comparatively analyse different contexts through common research questions and methodologies.

ABSTRACT. Although Norwegian social policies have had a recurring focus on the risk of social exclusion and marginalisation of vulnerable groups living in poverty, there has been less attention on elderly living in precarious economic situations. This study explores elderly persons’ experiences from living in economic hardship and their encounters with the welfare state service and support system over time. The study has a qualitative design, and the analysis is based on life course interviews with ten elderly persons in low-income situations. The study applies Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice with her key concepts of redistribution and recognition to analyse elderly’s experiences with the welfare services and support system and how this has shaped their trajectories into their current situation of poverty. The study demonstrates how elderly people experience economic hardship differently on a continuum between agency and powerlessness, independence and dependency, combat and resignation. For some informants, the capacity to navigate the system and thereby secure a stable all though small income seems to promote a sense of independence and self-sufficiency. Others experience living in economic hardship as a constant combat with the welfare system. For these people the struggle for recognition of their rights and needs in encounters with street level bureaucrats in welfare services rather seems to result in a sense of disempowerment and loss of agency. The study has implication for social policies, welfare service delivery and social work, and suggests taking into consideration the precarious and economically difficult situation for this rapidly growing group of people - as living in poverty may cause further marginalisation and social exclusion of elderly.

ABSTRACT. Post-employment conflicts of interest carry important risks of integrity violations. Nevertheless, empirical research is scarce. When public servants (temporarily) leave their organization, they experience dilemmas concerning the use of knowledge, skills and contacts acquired while in public service (Loyens et al. 2022). These conflicts of interest include revolving door constructions like ‘switching sides’ (Cerrillo-I-Martínez 2017; Mulgan 2021; Andrews et al. 2023), retired top officials actively supporting political parties (Miller 2020) or former police officers working as private investigators but still collaborating with old colleagues (Smit et al. 2019). The integrity risks are particularly high for ministerial advisors who regularly switch between the public and private sector, and often have an important impact on the legislative process, especially in Belgium. The threefold question in this paper is: which moral dilemmas do ministerial advisors experience when switching between sectors, what integrity risks do these dilemmas entail, and how do integrity management instruments (fail to) mitigate these risks? These questions will be answered by a qualitative case study in the Belgian federal government, combining document analysis with interviews. First, more than 60 documents were analyzed, including legislation, policy plans, yearly reports, and reports of international organizations (e.g. OECD, European Commission) and NGO’s (e.g. TI). Second, 17 respondents were interviewed about their experiences with ministerial advisors and integrity risks when they switch sides. This study shows that integrity risks are particularly high in procurement, consultancy, lobbying, construction and logistics. The temporary mandate of ministerial advisors increases the risks, especially for those who are hired from the private sector. Despite known cases of excessive influence or manipulation of the legislative process, there are however almost no legal or other policy instruments to mitigate these risks. This study thus concludes with policy recommendations to safeguard integrity while not hampering employment opportunities of ministerial advisors in Belgium.

ABSTRACT. Many frontline bureaucracies suffer from psychologically unsafe workplaces that undermine frontline workers’ ability to deliver effective public service, pushing them into burn-outs and out of their organization (cf. Eldor, 2018). Psychological safety is frontline workers’ belief that they are safe to take interpersonal risks, encouraging them to speak up, share their experiences, and learn from their mistakes without fear of negative repercussions or judgment (Nembhard & Edmondson, 2011). Without it, frontline workers can refrain from innovating public service or using their resources to help citizens (Newman et al., 2017; Davidovitz & Cohen, 2023).

Despite the high stakes involved, a skew towards quantitative survey research in existing generic management scholarship and the scant attention street-level bureaucracy scholarship has paid to the ‘backstage’ of the bureaucratic encounter—i.e., the social processes that unfold within street-level bureaucracies, between frontline workers, peers and frontline managers, that shape frontline workers’ convictions and citizen-interactions (e.g., Raaphorst, 2017; Keulemans & Groeneveld, 2020)—left us without a comprehensive understanding of why and how frontline psychological safety develops (cf. Newman et al., 2017) and affects subsequent public service delivery. This paper examines how psychological safety is accomplished in and through everyday frontline practice. It asks: What dynamics of situations and people foster or deteriorate psychological safety at the frontlines and what consequences do these dynamics have for frontline workers’ public service delivery?

Empirically, an ethnographic study of frontline tax officials who audit small- to medium sized enterprises (including ~320 hours of observations, and interviews in multiple regional tax offices) will answer this research question. Theoretically, this paper will integrate insights from organizational science and psychology with street-level bureaucracy literature (e.g., Raaphorst & Loyens, 2020; Edmondson & Lei, 2014)—a combination of perspectives that will provide much-needed insight into how social processes in frontline organizations shape public service delivery.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the influences of authoritarian populism on street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) and public service delivery. Using recent developments in Brazil during Bolsonaro's government as a case, we delve into the nuanced effects of political polarization and politicization on the attitudes and actions of SLBs both during and after populist administrations. We elucidate how authoritarian leaders manipulate institutional frameworks, rhetoric, and societal tensions to pressure SLBs into enacting populist policies, often conflicting with their official mandates. Drawing on insights from various studies and interviews conducted with 25 street-level bureaucrats, our research unveils diverse outcomes of authoritarian populism on the functioning of street-level bureaucracy. These include heightened frictions and conflicts between citizens and workers, undermine of bureaucratic capacity, emergence of non-compliant behaviors, and reproduction of inequalities in service provision. Moreover, we assess how these dynamics evolve over time, even following the conclusion of populist regimes, highlighting the enduring impact of populism on bureaucratic practices. Additionally, we explore various factors that may elucidate this influence, such as professionalism, organizational support, and bureaucratic integration. By analyzing the intricate interplay between authoritarian populism and SLBs, this study not only enriches scholarly discussions on populism but also furnishes practical insights for policymakers grappling with challenges at the frontline of public service delivery.

ABSTRACT. Questions on equality in public service delivery have been a central focus of study in different streams of literature in public administration. These streams of literature generally start from predefined notions of equity or equality, such as the representation of the interests of minority clients, and reducing discrimination. There is still a lack of understanding of how street-level professionals themselves perceive equal treatment in decision-making processes about clients. A first qualitative study, involving interviews with frontline law enforcers and service providers, has conceptualized four heuristics of equal treatment: 1) law- and rule-based equality; 2) professional reflection-based equality; 3) casuistry-based equality and 4) society-based equality (Raaphorst, 2023). The current study follows up on these individual-level findings to analyze how law enforcers and service providers respond to and deal with different types of inequality in interaction with each other.

A focus group study on law enforcers and service providers in different policy domains in the Netherlands will be conducted (spring-summer 2024). The use of focus groups allows for analyzing the social interaction around inequality. Groups consisting of 4-6 frontline professionals with similar core tasks will be presented vignettes portraying different hypothetical stories of unequally treated clients. The vignettes will be constructed based on the four abovementioned heuristics of equality. Focus group participants will then be asked what they think about the situation and how they would deal with it. The talk will be analyzed both in terms of content (what they talk about) and characteristics of the interaction (how they talk to each other) (e.g. Bartels, 2013). This study will contribute to research on (in)equality in street level decision-making, by examining how frontline professionals interact about different forms of inequality, and how these interactions are patterned by their core task of either service provision or law enforcement.

ABSTRACT. In the past three decades the amount of quantitative data counting, measuring, and evaluating social- and work-related practices and performances have increased dramatically. This is partly boosted by technological and digital capabilities but also closely connected to ideological and cultural developments. Within public governance it is seen as intertwined with values of New Public Management and demands of evidence-based practice, transparency, and accountability. From one perspective quantitative data can be seen as neutral and objective data providing knowledge about amounts, patterns, and efficiency. From another perspective, however, quantitative data about human affairs can also be seen as interventions influencing what is being counted. Scholars have used different labels such as ‘reactive measurements’, ‘perverse effects’, or ‘unintended consequences’ to describe such feedback mechanisms. This paper adds to this ‘interventionist perspective’ by: 1. Looking at reactions to the presentation of numbers. Much research has assumed that people react to the general knowledge of being counted and measured. This paper, however, describes immediate reactions of street-level professionals when presented with various kinds of numbers in meetings, e-mails, etc. 2. Providing empirical data from longitudinal observations of Danish public employment service organizations. 3. Demonstrating much more nuanced responses to numbers than merely strategic reactions. It does so by suggesting a typology encompassing a whole spectrum of reactions such as e.g. distrust, joy, anxiety, narrating, etc. The paper further explores the role of managers as both recipients and communicators of numbers, and it discusses what it is about numbers that create such diverse responses. The paper adds to our understanding of Big Data, performance measurements and data paradoxes from a SLB-perspective, and contributes with a reparative critique helping street-level organizations cope with measurements and reflect with, instead of against, numbers in an age of quantification.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, practices of performance measurement (PM) have come under increasing critique for being incompatible with the current transition toward collaborative forms of public sector governance. Research on PM have thus increasingly turned toward questions of whether and how PM systems can be redesigned to better promote the values, practices and goals of collaborative governance. However, these studies tend to overlook the way specific models and methods of PM are embedded within larger performance regimes. The ability to redesign concrete PM systems (i.e. PM indicators, -methods and -interventions) thus hinges on the ability to also change the overarching performance regime. To study the changeability of such performance regimes, the paper applies the concept of lock-in mechanisms to develop an analytical framework for studying performance regime change and stability. This framework is applied to the case of the Danish municipal job centres who have recently sought to change their PM-systems to better measure whether – and with what effects – they succeed in furthering client co-creation. 

The analysis shows how the attempts of the job centres of redesigning the PM system are constrained by regulatory, material, behavioral and discursive lock-in mechanisms that reinforces specific ways of measuring and using performance information within the field of employment services. Despite the goal of the three job centers to develop local PM system more attuned to measuring the needs and engagement of clients, this ambitions is thwarted by the wider performance regime, which 1) remain institutionally locked-in to the goal of upward accountability toward government rather than downward towards clients; 2) Which continue to enhance the power of STAR rather than the job centers to redesign ways of measuring performance;  and 3) which continue to further the use of performance intervention for top down management interventions rather than client-oriented interventions.

ABSTRACT. How have new ways of governing the public sector transformed the governance of street-level bureaucracies? By bridging two strands of literature that seldom speak to each other – critical management studies and the study of street-level bureaucracy – this paper contributes a novel approach to the study of the governing of street-level bureaucracies. Integrating concepts and perspectives from these two research traditions enables us to offer a multiplex view of organizational governance with special attention to the normative and informal processes at work in shaping the ‘ideal caseworker’ under contemporary forms of public management. The staff in street-level bureaucracies are included in a web of organizational relationships and forms of control, and our analysis is aimed to capture this complex, nested form of governance. In order achieve this, we ‘cut’ the analysis of the multiplex forms of governance in a new way, by speaking of governance by discourse, governance by emotions, governance by peers, and governance by colours and numbers, offering a new framework for analysis of the governing of street-level bureaucracies. The separation between these forms of governance is analytical, as in the everyday governance of street-level bureaucracies, they may tie into, and reinforce – or in other instances counteract – one another. But these forms of governing all fall under what we call normative governance. This analysis considers the linkages between the shaping of caseworkers’ self and subjectivity and the larger organizational governance structures in which they are placed, including directing attention to how governance systems affect the subjectivity of those involved.

ABSTRACT. AI tools are under development in various sectors within the Norwegian welfare services, including the police force, healthcare, and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). The work of these organizations often involves making discretionary assessments for individuals in vulnerable situations. This article addresses the potential benefits and challenges of utilizing AI in such discretionary processes. A critical aspect of caseworkers' roles involves evaluating and identifying the needs of clients, a process pivotal to determining the benefits and services accessible through NAV.

This study employs analytical concepts from street-level bureaucracy theory and institutional ethnography to investigate the practical execution of needs assessments by caseworkers. Through eight weeks of observations across three NAV offices and 55 in-depth interviews with caseworkers, we studied how caseworkers start with a digital profile from a rule-based algorithm, then move on to map clients' challenges and needs, ultimately leading to a decision about the need for intervention. Our analysis finds that the profiling does not provide caseworkers with what they need, especially in terms of identifying potentially vulnerable users with insufficient language skills and digital competence, and individuals who are or risk becoming so-called repeat users.

The research emphasizes that the process of evaluating and identifying clients' needs is a complex, discretionary process characterized by variation, detective work, and often invisible documentation. A principal discovery is that the procedure of mapping and evaluating clients' needs involves a series of ongoing, minor discretionary judgments that contribute to the final discretionary decision. Our findings suggest that this process relies heavily on the caseworkers' experience and expertise, necessitating the interpretation of complex data, evaluation of contextual factors, and the recognition of subtle nuances that are critical to the decision-making process. We explore the implications of these insights for the integration of algorithms into discretionary assessments within welfare services.

ABSTRACT. For decades, Public Employment Services (PES) have used algorithmic systems to profile jobseekers. Profiling scores assist caseworkers in selecting appropriate labor market policy instruments for jobseekers. While statistical profiling is currently the leading method, some countries are starting to implement artificial intelligence (AI), specifically models that make predictions about jobseekers (Desiere et al. 2021). These models use statistical or supervised machine learning algorithms to assist caseworkers in making decisions (Kleinberg et al., 2018). All algorithmic profiling systems aim to improve the efficiency of the PES. However, some systems have faced criticism from academia and civil rights organizations. This criticism is centered around the difficulty jobseekers face in rejecting an assigned score and the limited discretion caseworkers have due to system design. This study investigates the impact of algorithmic profiling on caseworkers and jobseekers. Specifically, we examine (1) the level of discretion caseworkers have when using algorithmic profiling, (2) the options available to jobseekers to challenge the results of algorithmic profiling, (3) the transparency of these systems, and (4) the impact of algorithmic profiling scores on resource allocation. We conducted a qualitative systematic literature review to identify relevant articles. We developed a coding scheme to analyze the articles based on our research questions. This study enhances the understanding of the impact of digital transformation on the work of street-level bureaucrats. The paper contributes to the public debate by systematically identifying and compiling a differentiated picture of the impact and risks of algorithmic profiling.

ABSTRACT. Understanding what affects street-level bureaucrats’ capacity to supervise automated decision-making systems (ADMs) is important in the context of increasing use of digital data and algorithmic tools, when it comes to decisions regarding access to social benefits and services, risk classification or identification of fraud (Eubanks, 2017; Alston, 2019; Dubois et al., 2018). To protect citizens from harms and to enforce their data protection rights, public servants are increasingly tasked with supervision of these tools and correction of algorithmic advice (Jones, 2017; Yeung, 2019; Alon-Barkat and Busuioc, 2023). This mechanism, referred to as ‘human in the loop’ or ‘caseworker in the loop’ (Kӧrtner and Bonoli, 2023), becomes the prevailing safeguard against errors, bias, discrimination generated by ADMs (Green, 2022).

Based on the mix-methods case study of the profiling algorithm implemented in Public Employment Services in Poland, the article explores how the welfare administration context matters for the exercise of frontline oversight of ADMs. Using both qualitative and quantitative evidence, the study explores the role of various contextual factors that can either constrain or facilitate oversight. By doing so, we supplement the existing research on human-computer interaction, which so far has focused on human cognitive limitations without taking into account the context in which oversight takes place as well as who exercises it, as if these factors were irrelevant. Inspired by street-level perspective, our research explores discretionary decision-making vis-à-vis ADM as ‘context-dependent’ process (e.g. Lipsky 2010, Evans Hupe 2020) and looks at other than cognitive and psychological factors that play constraining role when caseworkers want to say ‘no’ to a computer, but ultimately don’t (Sztandar-Sztanderska and Zieleńska, 2022). We summarise the results in an analytical framework that distinguishes technology- organisational- policy- and professional-level factors, that can be further tested and elaborated in other cases of ADMs in welfare administration.

ABSTRACT. Drawing inspiration from research that highlights the importance of feasible job search (Zune and Demazière, 2021) in PES, this paper reports on an application of Design Thinking (DT) as a human-centered approach to developing a PES labour market information (LMI) citizen tool in Ireland. DT has been endorsed as an approach to addressing complex social policy problems (Lewis et.al 2020), through collaboration and iterative prototyping.

Against the backdrop of pay and income transparency laws, which in turn has led to the improvement of income and pay data as well as data infrastructure, the project explores the development of a tool to give unemployed individuals high-quality, searchable data on income by region, occupation, and experience.

By way of empirics, the paper details a 3 stages DT programme, with N=59 participants, that iteratively problematised, co-developed, and evaluated a new LMI pay and income tool for use in Irish PES:

-One-on-one interviews with job seekers and caseworkers to gain insights into their expectations and challenges. -Benchmark walkthroughs to understand the complexities of existing web services. -Co-design sessions to generate user-informed approaches for displaying LMI related to income.

In this way, the paper showcases DT methods in action in the development of digital PES, highlighting how digital automation, algorithmic, and machine learning technologies can strengthen unemployed people's autonomy and feasible job search.

ABSTRACT. Since the rise of active labour market policies, social work has been one of the ‘providers’ of activation workers, with varied involvement across contexts. However, the relevance and desirability of activation work for achieving social work goals have remained unclear and even contested since Hasenfeld (1999), especially in contexts of disciplining, obligatory welfare to work policies and organisations managed through New Public Management. At the same time, the relevance of social work competence for achieving activation goals has also been contested. According to some studies (Sadeghi, 2020; Van Berkel & Knies, 2018), organisational and policy contexts appear to matter more to understand activation practices and outcomes than occupational contexts.

This ambivalent situation contributes to an isolated occupational position of social workers who are actually ‘doing activation’. In the Dutch context which is the focus of our paper, they lack specific and shared professional social work standards and faculty support for doing activation work, consistent with social work principles to support vulnerable citizens. To reduce their isolation, further clarification of social work’s role in this field of practice is necessary.

With our paper we therefore aim to contribute to further clarification and demarcation of the role of social work in activation work from two perspectives: (1) the (potential) added-value of social work competence for achieving activation goals and (2) the (potential) added-value of activation work for achieving social work goals. We present data on both topics resulting from group interviews with Dutch activation workers (both social workers and workers with other educational backgrounds) working in various organisational settings and interviews with professional organizations for activation workers and social workers. We discuss our findings in terms of the desirability and the potential value of advancing the role of social workers in activation work.

ABSTRACT. The challenges and possibilities of practicing professional social work in public employment services have been debated for some time (e.g., Raeymaeckers & Dierckx, 2013; Sadeghi & Terum, 2023; Pascoe et al., 2023). While some studies focus on discretion as indicative of professional practice (e.g., Jessen & Tufte, 2014; Andreassen, 2018), limited attention has been given to a broader understanding of social work professionalism encompassing knowledge, principles, and ethics (see Røysum, 2017; Andreassen & Natland, 2022 for exceptions). In this paper I explore ideas of what ‘good’ professional work is, at the street level of Danish public employment services;

- What does it mean to be a ‘good’ professional in this setting? - Which knowledge, skills and attitudes are needed to be a ‘good’ professional? - How are ideas of ‘good’ professional work connected with the social work profession or professionalism?

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 25 clients facing challenges beyond unemployment and 30 trained social workers working with this target group within public employment services.

While clients value professionals who engage with them as unique individuals, contrasting institutional representatives who treat them ‘as numbers’, social workers highlight the importance of coordinating various support services for clients, and being a stabilizing source of support in what is often complex cases. Both parties thus emphasize relational and connective aspects of professionalism (Noordegraaf, 2020), albeit without explicit linkage to the social work profession. Notably, descriptions of the knowledge and skills required for 'good' professionalism in public employment services focus more on personal attitudes than specific competencies.

The paper concludes with a discussion on the role of social work professionalism in public employment services, questioning whether the emphasis on connective aspects extends traditional social work professionalism, including responsiveness and holistic services, or represents a separate skillset detached from social work's core knowledge and attitudes.

ABSTRACT. While it is well-established that welfare bureaucrats have discretionary power to not only implement but also 'make' welfare policies, their individual impact on welfare recipients’ perceived administrative burdens is less researched. The aim of this paper is to explore how welfare recipients’ interactions with welfare bureaucrats impact their experiences of administrative burdens, drawing on biographical-narrative interviews with 33 (former) benefit recipients in Germany. Results show that welfare recipients make welfare bureaucrats responsible for easing, increasing and creating new psychological costs for them but also that welfare recipients themselves can influence their administrative burdens. The paper contributes to the scarce research on the relational aspects of administrative burden. The results call for more client- and problem-centred approaches in welfare benefit and employment services.

ABSTRACT. The ways in which welfare bureaucratic experiences might have a bearing on trust in the welfare state have rarely been investigated from a qualitative perspective (Fine, 2010: 9), certainly in post-socialist nations where trust in political institutions and generalised social trust have been notoriously low (Delhey et al., 2011; Delhey and Newton, 2005; Letki and Mieriņa, 2015; Rothstein and Stolle, 2008). Interestingly, however, ethnographic data combining observation of face-to-face welfare bureaucratic encounters and subsequent in-depth interviews with participants in the Romanian context provide valuable insight into far more than the workings of trust. Participant narratives and observed interactions related to applications for universal and contributory transfers reveal that citizens often mobilise generalisations with notable symbolic load. Generalisations refer to encompassing categories, such as “the system”, “the [Romanian] bureaucracy”, “the [Romanian] state” or “us Romanians”, suggesting that welfare bureaucratic encounters are a useful starting point for talking about state and society not just as ideas, but as tangible, palpable and influential, powerful. Using a mainly inductive thematic analysis that prioritises citizens’ point of view, this paper explores not only the categories of generalisation, but also the circumstances in which citizens articulate generalisalising statements. The paper argues that the act of generalising reveals one discursive means for formulating the citizen-state relationship, highly symbolic and present, but challenging to pin down: it is a means to make order in a highly fragmented, unpredictable public sphere. Another argument set forth is that citizens’ age-differentiated willigness, rather than based on socio-economic positioning, to articulate overwhelmingly negative aspects and cite dismaying, sometimes traumatic experiences is revelatory of the iterative, temporal evolution of distrust over one’s lifetime, with direct implications for welfare bureaucratic reform.

ABSTRACT. The encounters between street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) and citizens/clients are foundational to service provision. Existing studies on clients’ perceptions of SLBs reveal a puzzling dichotomy, oscillating between highly negative and overtly hostile to somewhat positive and empathetic. The purpose of this study is to articulate a mechanism explaining the paradoxical dual perceptions held by clients/citizens. The research is based on data from several recent studies conducted in Israel, including in-depth interviews with about 250 low-income clients, and about 300 SLBs. The insights gained from amalgamating these perspectives are profound. Client interviews revealed a plethora of concerns that align with existing literature. A pervasive sense of distrust was evident, with clients feeling uncared for, suspecting personal biases, and perceiving unfair resource distribution. Notably, clients were confounded by the denial of services without clear justification, particularly when they believed themselves entitled or were aware of others receiving such services. Conversely, interviews with SLBs highlighted the pivotal role of informal resources. I previously posited that SLBs rely on personal, informal resources (IFRs) as a crucial trust-building tool, compensating for the inadequacies of formal resources. However, an integrated analysis of both clients and SLBs perspectives uncovered a ‘Trust Paradox’: while the use of IFRs by SLBs was intended to bolster trust, it ironically diminishes it, rendering the services provided precarious: unpredictable, inconsistent, and unreliable – resulting in less trust and greater hostility among clients. This paper discusses the ‘Trust Paradox’ in detail, exploring its implications for client-SLB relationship and service delivery. It reflects on the balancing act that SLBs must perform, using informal resources to foster trust while simultaneously risking the stability and predictability of the services they provide. The findings underscore the need for a systemic overhaul to address the roots of this paradox and enhance the trustworthiness and reliability of public service delivery.

ABSTRACT. Muhtars (headmen) in Turkey are elected frontline workers operating at a very local level—that of a neighborhood or village. Their specificity is strong social and local embeddedness. The people they administrate are at the same time their neighbors and constituents. Besides, their work is organized in a much less bureaucratic manner than that of other frontline workers. Muhtars are not specialized but operate in several domains - mostly administrative work, social assistance, and service delivery. While most administrative procedures can be implemented both at muhtars’ offices and in other administrations - and sometimes online -, many people still turn to muhtars. Therefore, turning to these street-level workers is a choice by the users. Not all citizens make use of the muhtars to the same extent or in the same way. The paper therefore analyses which citizens tend to solicit the muhtar, and in which instances. Disadvantaged groups—be it economically, socially, or culturally—solicit muhtars more frequently. Interestingly, they turn to them with all kinds of requests - including for issues for which muhtars have no official responsibility. The paper then questions why these residents make such broad use of muhtars. First, muhtars come across as being more accessible than other officials. This is certainly linked to their closeness to, and dependency on residents for reelection. Second, citizens expect muhtars to stray from the official precepts supposedly guiding them – much more than what Lipsky described for street-level work requiring ‘responsiveness to the individual case’ (Lipsky 1980/2010: XII). It is commonly believed that in Turkish administration, nothing works according to the rules, and that intercession proves crucial (Secor, 2007; Yoltar, 2007). Most citizens turn to muhtars expecting them to intercede with institutions on their behalf. Soliciting street-level workers often appears as attempts to bypass official rules (Massicard, 2022).

ABSTRACT. We examine the effects of street-level managers’ configurational boundary work on coordinated employment and social services. Configurational boundary work involves the manipulation of integration among people or ideas to ensure that certain activities are brought together while others kept apart. Our research context is the major organizational reform of the Norwegian labour and welfare services (Nav) from 2006 onwards. We draw on survey, interview and archival data on a selection of three street-level organizations, asking

- How is managers’ configurational boundary work associated with the integration of employees from former separate organizations? - What are the relations of such internal integration on labour market participation

Our findings highlight a dynamic trajectory of, first, softening the boundaries by developing occupational generalists, and second, a hardening of the boundaries through new specializations and new team structures as the generalist ambitions appear challenging for many workers. This dynamic of innovative integration ambitions followed by reluctance and situational work seems to be a defining characteristic of integration efforts in the street-level organizations.

We also find that internal integration (as experienced by employees) does not necessarily result in more coordinated services to clients. Softening boundaries seems effective in demolishing boundaries to support holistic client orientation, but over time this requires hardened boundaries to support street-level workers’ needs.

Overall, rather than the question of harder or softer boundaries to promote service integration, we find that configurational boundary work results in new boundaries, which provide new challenges for managers and thus requires ongoing boundary work to re-align and institutionalize the reconfigured boundaries.

ABSTRACT. Background Home-based healthcare services are facing pressures of increasing needs due to an ageing population, rising workload for an overburdened workforce, and limited financial resources. The trust model is an approach to address these challenges, by organising the home-based healthcare services into smaller, autonomous interdisciplinary frontline teams. The aim is to involve users and next of kin in decision-making and trusting frontline workers’ professional judgement, thus making the services more flexible and individually tailored.    This study explores how the frontline workers are enacting the trust model and how they experience working within interdisciplinary teams according to the model’s intention.

Study setup Data were collected through observations (37), individual interviews with frontline workers (10) and focus-group interviews (4) in home-based healthcare services in a large Norwegian city between March 2021 and April 2022, and analyzed thematically.  

Results The results identify organisational work structures that influence the performance of the trust model regarding its intention of making flexible and individually tailored services available. Structures being different for the team members, thus creating several paradoxes that need to be negotiated while fulfilling their daily responsibilities. The results also demonstrate a dilemma between creating belonging to and forming identities within the interdisciplinary team, and at the same time, the importance of maintaining belonging and identity with those in the same profession or with the same tasks and responsibilities.

Conclusion The trust model’s intention is in line with political guidelines and recommendations; however, it seems to be a multi-sided experience when implemented. The study points to some organisational structures and paradoxes that are at play, and it also points to an act of balancing dual belongings for the frontline workers. These experiences are important to be aware of regarding service development, interdisciplinary cooperation, and policymaking.

ABSTRACT. A key policy aim is to reduce welfare dependency and increase work and educational participation amongst young people. To meet this aim, the Norwegian Employment and Welfare Service (NAV) has introduced initiatives targeting young welfare clients with closer follow-up services such as increased caseworker autonomy and lower caseloads. Young clients differ in many respects from other welfare clients as they frequently lack both education and work experience, thus being in need of assistance before even entering the labour market. The benefit systems and activation measures within are however the same for all welfare clients. Based on qualitative interviews and focus groups with frontline workers and managers in NAV conducted between 2018 and 2021, the paper highlights how frontline staff working with young clients battle with how to fit the clients into pre-defined criteria, such as differentiating between health conditions and other social problems. Pre-defined categories and medical diagnosis were taking more of their attention than follow-up services. Hence, despite putting a lot of effort into the assessments, outcomes were still characterised by the staff as arbitrary. The frontline workers called for more time for relational work as well as a higher degree of flexibility in their work roles with young clients. We interpret the findings as the role of SLB activating young being closer to a “civil servant role” checking eligibility criteria than a “service provider role" assisting young in redirecting their lives towards education and work activities. The paper underscores the challenges frontline workers experience when faced with expectations of a more professionalised role for a client group in the context of a benefit system that is standardised.