ABSTRACT. This paper explores the animating ethos of digital unemployment services. Unlike human-to-human services, where the intention of policy is normally mediated by professional, often unionised street-level bureaucrats, who co-produce the service with users, digital services are fully designed in the policy imagination, and then directed at users as a fait accompli. As a result, it is a pressing issue to understand the ideas, concepts, and ethos that animate the development of digital services. To address this issue, this paper reports on focus groups undertaken to support the development of a disruptive digital service to deliver unemployment services. These focus groups used ‘design thinking’ type vignettes that provided scenarios and personas around the experience of unemployment, and sought the views and responses of three different groups- senior policymakers, front-line caseworkers, and unemployed people in public employment services in four European countries. Without prompting, across twelve focus groups, in four different countries, with four researcher teams using a shared method— each conversation variously problematised the imputed motivations of the hypothetical unemployed person. From this, we suggest that the design of digital unemployment services may well be dominated by the axiomatic, uncritical mobilisation of motivation theory. Indeed, the motivation of others, is front and centre when designing digital unemployment services. From there, we offer a brief genealogy of the form of motivation theory that surfaced in the study, and highlight its interesting shared history in seminal studies on unemployment. As a result, we conclude, that rather than altering welfare, digitisation is likely to reanimate activation in new ways that deepen longstanding processes of ‘double activation’.

ABSTRACT. Current sorting practices in the provision of welfare, used in processes like categorising welfare recipients into cohorts for activation policies, rely on the data inputted into the system. With the introduction of digitalised processes and automated administrative practices, increasingly the creation of this data is undertaken without interaction between the citizen and an agent of the state. This means digital forms and processes of information collection and categorisation take on an increased importance, through their role as an interfacing technology that produces the data that underpins automated and digital processes. This transforms how citizens experience bureaucracy and administrative processes, with deep implications for street-level bureaucracy and the nature of discretion in the welfare state. With the digital welfare state removing the agent acting on behalf of the state in this interaction, and replacing them with various forms of digital interaction, the space for discretion at the point of contact is either changed or lost entirely. In turn, this prompts questions about the impact of these changes on the nature of the relationship between the citizen and the state, and the deeper meaning associated with removing the person involved in the interaction of the state with the citizen. This paper explores the implications of this ongoing transformation in the context of the emergent digital welfare state, outlining how these trends, when operating in conjunction with welfare state models which are increasingly structured around conditionality and targeting, have significant potential to be harmful to citizens. Using one of the key forms in Australia’s recent changes to a ‘digital first’ welfare model in 2022 as an example, the paper examines the potential impacts on citizens caused by the administrative burdens associated with navigating the online system and correctly providing the relevant information without an agent of the state to assist applicants.

ABSTRACT. Producing (understood as shaping, maintaining, distributing, and storing) documents is a distinctive trait of bureaucracy in frontline social work. Research traditions dating back to Weber has analyzed the importance of documents and paperwork in producing administrative power (Weber 1978, see also Hull 2012, Mangset and Asdal 2019, Mukerji 2011). The constitutive power and political effects of documents, notes, and forms in modern bureaucracies have been widely analyzed within sociology and political science (Foucault, 1972; Bowker & Star, 1999). In street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 2010; Zacka, 2017), filling out forms, documenting incidents, interactions, and information, and writing decisions are central aspects of the work of street-level bureaucrats including social workers as a part of statutory case work. In recent years, these documenting practices are increasingly becoming digitalized (Buffat, 2015), and in some instances automated.

We investigate the effects of new documenting system on the documents produced, case work in general, and ultimately the citizens. We analyze what happens to documenting practices in frontline social work when case work is digitalized and automated. Specifically, we center our attention on statutory case workers obligation to record and document steps and processes taking within casework in a municipal job center in Denmark. Through interviews and observations over a 6-month period we illustrate how what was originally intended as a technology of communication turns out to have immense implications on frontline documentation practices. The case demonstrates how automatization raises new and unexpected legal, professional, and ethical issues.

Our paper sheds light on challenges of digitalizing and especially automatizing documentation in frontline work and street-level bureaucracy in general. It underlines how the practice of documenting in frontline work is not just a time-consuming, redundant task that takes time away from important professional work but is central to professional frontline work and requires professional expertise and professional discretion.

ABSTRACT. The scholarly field of Street-Level Bureaucracy has thoroughly examined how street level bureaucrats (SLBs) navigate the pressures and demands intrinsic to their roles, with a specific focus on their decision-making and discretionary practices in resource allocation. This scrutiny is crucial as the demand for services frequently exceeds the resources available, challenging SLBs to provide adequate services for their clients. Recent studies have shifted attention to a less visible aspect of SLBs’ implementation work: the provision of personal and informal resources (IFRs) that extend beyond formal job requirements, to provide more adequate service to their clients. This has been particularly noted in ‘caring professions,’ which are predominantly female-staffed, leading to an over-representation of women in research findings. Our study seeks to broaden existing insights in this area, by exploring gender dynamics on the street level, concentrating on how men and women SLBs differ in the provision of personal and informal resources to clients. Utilizing a qualitative approach, 44 in-depth interviews were conducted with Israeli public sector social workers, evenly split between genders (22 women, 22 men). Findings confirm previous research indicating a widespread provision of IFRs among SLBs. However, the analysis uncovers stark differences in how men and women approach these discretionary practices. Men social workers demonstrated much firmer boundaries when providing IFRs, ceasing when it impacted their work-life balance, risked professional advancement, or led to excessive stress and potential burnout. Women social workers did not exhibit such rigid limits in the provision of IFRs to clients. This research reveals distinct gender dynamics in SLBs’ service provision, an area previously underexplored. It underscores the critical implications for gender inequality in public service, and concludes by discussing these implications and proposing avenues for future research to mitigate gender disparities at the street level of public administration.

ABSTRACT. In this study we investigate patterns in caseworkers’ collective assessment in child welfare cases and changes in these patterns over time. Studies have shown how collective decision-making and deliberation are key in understanding street-level bureaucrats’ exercise of discretion and assessments in cases. Drawing on a unique replication design we replicate of a 2002 Danish qualitative vignette study on caseworkers’ assessments in child welfare to explore if and how there are changes in caseworkers’ assessments 20 years later.. The new study applies the same methods as the 2002-study: focus group interviews with 30 caseworkers in total from seven municipalities who are asked to assess six vignettes with fictional descriptions of cases (updated versions of the same vignettes used in the 2002-study). The 2002-study found that the responsibility for assessments was individualized, that the assessments lacked systematic methods, and that professional knowledge was only mobilized to a very limited degree, resulting in inconsistent assessments within and across municipalities. Preliminary findings reveal three significant changes compared to deliberations and assessments in the original study: 1) the level of collective deliberation has increased, 2) practices of assessments apply more systematic methods, and 3) the deliberations and assessments are to a higher degree founded on professional knowledge and expertise. These changes in practice reflect broader changes in how street-level bureaucrats’ exercise of discretion and assessments in social work, such as increased professionalization, changes in the view on children, as well as structural changes and legal changes in the Danish child welfare system.

ABSTRACT. The article contributes to the understanding of collaboration between street-level bureaucrats in various sectors. Efficient management of physical child abuse cases necessitates a cohesive partnership among various sectors, including social services authorities, police, forensic departments, and pediatric hospitals. In Denmark, the establishment of children centres in 2013 formalized this collaboration. This article presents findings from an in-depth single case study conducted in Denmark, involving 45 semi-structured interviews with professionals engaged in child abuse cases, extensive document studies, and observations spanning over three years. Analytical insights reveal that professional autonomy among street-level bureaucrats poses a significant barrier to cross-sectorial collaboration. Despite efforts to mitigate this through standardization, such as the implementation of standard operational procedures in the police, standardized templates in documentation, and streamlined processes in children centres, challenges persist. Notably, there is a proliferation of intra- and interorganizational standards within police, children centres, pediatric hospitals, and forensic departments, but a noticeable scarcity in standards governing collaborations between social authorities and other sectors. There are several related reasons to this problem. Firstly, there exist various local practices, especially in social services, impacting processes and interpretations of laws and regulations related to physical child abuse. Secondly, the social aspect of these cases introduces greater complexity compared to legal and health aspects that cannot be reduced to standard. Thirdly, the social workers have an extended involvement in the lives of children and families contrasts with the brief engagement of street-level professionals in other sectors, such as the police and forensic department. In conclusion, this article proposes recommendations to enhance collaboration in physical child abuse cases, addressing the identified challenges and promoting a more integrated approach across diverse professional domains.

ABSTRACT. Introduction The Norwegian government has encouraged the implementation of the Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) model since 2009. The service is implemented to close a gap between different service levels that care for people with long and complex needs for follow-up support. The FACT teams have employees from community healthcare services and specialized mental health services. They aim to provide all care within the team and support the patient's recovery process. Peer support workers are employed in the team to improve the perspective of recovery orientation as they work with patients and share their perspectives in team discussions.

Method Research of three FACT team services in urban areas in Norway. Through individual interviews and observations, this study aimed to learn how the FACT teams collaborate, work with the shared caseload, and use the peer support workers' knowledge within team discussions and in follow-up support of patients. A qualitative study design was chosen to get in-depth knowledge of experiences from employees within these teams with more than one year of experience. All data has been thematically analysed.

Results The study is a part of a PhD study. The first part of the study shows findings related to variation in working with shared caseload between the teams. To benefit from the model, it is important that the teams have a reflexive practice and common understanding of the model. The second part of the study is related to the peer support workers role and how knowledge of their practical recovery work presupposes a shared understanding of their work with patients to fully utilize their perspectives in team discussions.

ABSTRACT. The marginalization of vulnerable young adults who are not engaged in employment, education, or training (NEETs) is a significant societal challenge in Norway and internationally. However, satisfactory solutions remain elusive (Frøyland, 2020). A substantial body of research describes NEETs as vulnerable due to individual factors such as disabilities, mental health issues, substance abuse, lack of social network, motherhood, or language barriers (Frøyland, 2017; Pesquera Alonso et al., 2022; Saltkjel et al., 2023). However, recent research suggests shifting focus from individual circumstances to service system factors (Fyhn et al., 2021). In this article, we explore how interactions with street-level bureaucracy can contribute to or maintain the vulnerability of NEETs (Baker et al., 2005; Saltkjel et al., 2023; Virokannas et al., 2020). The article draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from September 2020 to June 2021. The first author observed and audio-recorded weekly meetings between young adults in vulnerable situations and street-level bureaucrats in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), and front-line employees in three external organizations, namely the psychological health services, a career guidance center, and a private work inclusion service provider, co-creating services together with NAV. In-depth interviews with all participants were conducted after the meetings. This study provided a comprehensive dataset for analysis, allowing us to gain a deep insight into service users' experiences of street-level bureaucracy. Our data reveal that the young adults experienced a general apprehension in interaction with NAV. Also, the external actors advocated for the young adults towards NAV and empowered them to assert their needs instead of merely following NAV's decisions. These preliminary findings indicate that interactions with street-level bureaucracy may perpetuate or maintain the vulnerable status of NEETs. We will delve deeper into this aspect in our forthcoming article and presentation at the street-level conference, welcoming valuable feedback to advance understanding.

ABSTRACT. There is a clear aim in Danish youth employment policy to bring young adults not in education, employment or training (NEET) (back) into education or work. The majority succeed by themselves or with short-term assistance from the municipal youth services responsible (Kleif 2020). Still, it has proven difficult to translate the fact, that around 42.000 young adults (aged 16–24-years) are outside jobs and education, into a workable practice in the local municipalities' youth services. For whom amongst the 42.000 young adults NEET require more than just short-term assistance? And what kind of help is needed to enable their transition into permanent education or employment? In this study activation processes of 48 24-year-old NEETs are analyzed to gain an insight into the efforts provided by the local youth employment services. At 25 the young adults enter the adult employment services. The selected group thus represents those for whom youth interventions have been offered without success yet in terms of ensuring a stable transition to education or employment. Analyses are based on a unique quantitative dataset developed in collaboration between researchers and professionals from a municipal youth service set in a medium-sized city in central Jutland. The dataset contains longitudinal information on each of the 48 young adults, gathered from the municipality’s journaling system. Sequence and cluster analysis identify four different types of activation processes with distinct activities separating them. There is an general distinction between activation processes dominated by: psychosocial activation, job-oriented activation, preparatory education and ordinary youth education. Few activation processes reflect a gradual progression while others indicate processes running in circles or simply status quo. Overall, the results demonstrate intense, long-term efforts targeted a group of young people for whom the path to stable education and work is neither linear nor immediate - if at all attainable.

ABSTRACT. When Danish welfare claimants confront administrative burdens, they go online for advice and support. A large online community stands ready to share experiences, provide guidance and emotional support. However, the online community not only offers social capital (Nisar 2018), administrative capital (Masood and Nisar 2021), bureaucratic competence (Gordon 1975), and contributes to claimant capacity (Brodkin & Majmundar 2010) and administrative literacy (Döring 2021), it also cultivates counter-emotions that seek to subvert the status quo (Flam 2005). This study examines the significance of such online communities for the coping and resistance of citizens facing both unemployment and significant health problems. Online communities have important implications for how citizens understand the causes of administrative burden (e.g., as deliberate attempts to keep them at the lowest level of benefit rather than incidental) and how they navigate them (the strategies they pursue to cope with and resist administrative burdens). Studies of emotions in social movements suggest that such communities also offer their members emotional orientations (Flam 2005), that may affect how citizens cope with administrative burdens. By examining what counter-emotions are cultivated and how they are justified by citizens, the article proposes a novel perspective on the agency of citizens as they encounter different sectors of the welfare state. The article examines the role of counter-emotions in critical micro-practices in an online community of benefit recipients with significant health problems by focusing on two research questions: 1) What emotions are rejected by the group and what counter-emotions are cultivated instead? 2) How are counter-emotions justified? The analysis builds on data from an online social community for resistance against jobcentres as well as interviews with 19 citizen-activists. The analysis paves the way for understanding how citizens are emotionally attuned by the communities in which they engage when encountering frontline workers and coping with administrative burdens.

ABSTRACT. Far from being unusual behavior, the exercise of ranking and preferential treatment by Street-Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) to the disadvantage of marginalized minorities is deeply rooted in the institutional, social, and cultural environments SLBs are en-tangled in. Studies focusing on explaining when and how such forms of discrimination at the frontline of public service delivery unfold have a strong transactional focus on allocative exclusion (e. g. Hemker & Rink, 2017). Despite attempts to understand discriminatory behaviors in public service encounters at an interactional micro-level, there is still a research gap regarding how discriminatory patterns and mechanisms unfold during the policy implementation process and the consequences this has for state-citizen interactions (Lotta & Pires, 2019).

Using a novel dataset of recorded dialogs between SLBs and citizens interacting in a local employment agency in Germany, we use computational sociolinguistic methods to address this gap. Drawing upon the study of dynamics of social power in interactions and its expression in discourse through linguistic features of communication, we analyze SLB’s decisions to address respectfully (or not) the citizens they interact with: Who deserves to be treated with (more) respect? Based on preliminary findings, we expect to find disparities in respectful treatment to the disadvantage of people with a so-called “migration background”.

This research is important for many reasons: being treated in a lesser way based on linkage to a marginalized group can entail a psychological burden for discriminated citizens leading to a disadvantage in the take-up of social benefits or even access to basic rights. Furthermore, being systematically treated with less respect can also damage self-notions of belonging and social identity, which is especially hurtful for minorities who are under constant pressure to integrate.

ABSTRACT. Language-based diversity has been an inherent feature of modern nation-states. However, more extensive and new patterns of migration have led to new forms of linguistic diversity with their own hierarchies, which in turn create challenges for welfare states in their quest for equity and social justice. Notwithstanding, research on language as a lens for understanding social (in)justice in welfare work is still scarce. This paper contributes to filling that gap by examining linguistic vulnerability as a site of oppression in welfare institutional encounters.

Within the neoliberal state, individual responsibility is emphasised, creating a situation where one must actively claim services. However, non-native speakers rarely complain when they do not receive the services to which they are entitled or when they feel discriminated against. Rather than seeing the lack of protest as a lack of resistance or as an acceptance of unequal treatment, we build on conceptualisations of bureaucratic and slow violence to demonstrate how the street-level bureaucracy enacts state policy in a way that creates structural disadvantage for non-native speakers and reinforces intersectional vulnerability regimes. We ask what kind of agency that is produced in contexts when actively complaining or protesting is not possible and where people then turn to for assistance. Hence, the article examines the ways in which citizenship is enacted and rights claimed despite linguistic and other intersecting power asymmetries. Empirically, we draw on semi-structured interviews (N=14) with welfare service users who are not fluent in the dominant languages. The interviews were conducted in Finland in 2022-2023 as part of a larger research project,

ABSTRACT. Representative bureaucracy theory posits that policy outcomes made by bureaucrats will reflect the interests of groups with whom they share social identities. However, the question remains whether bureaucrats consistently act on behalf of their constituents across a series of interactions. Given that state-citizen encounters are sequentially made, this study argues that iterations of contacts with the public may alter bureaucrats’ behaviors in current encounters. To test this expectation, I incorporate both social identity theory and identity theory into the representative bureaucracy and examine how Black and Hispanic officers’ previous issuance of traffic citations affects their current issuance of citations toward the same race drivers. Analyses of traffic citations made by 1,500 officers from Florida Highway Patrol reveal that racial congruence between officers and citizens results in less issuance of citations. However, Black and Hispanic officers who issued the citation in their preceding encounters are more likely to cite the same race drivers in current encounters. These findings indicate that outcomes of previous contacts can mitigate the benefits of same-race encounters. By placing state-citizen encounters in a continuous sequence, this study suggests that bureaucrats’ previous interactional experience with citizens significantly predicts their provision of substantive representation in current encounters, overwhelming the influence of shared racial identities.

ABSTRACT. “It takes a village to raise a child”. This classic pedagogical dictum points at the larger social context as important to the upbringing of our children and to the fact that we, as parents, are never the only ones influencing, shaping and raising our children. In this paper we study some of these authorities and a special aspect of this multifaceted civilizing process of children, namely the marking of social normality as educated, inclusive behaviour in pedagogical work. Pedagogical work addresses both abstract ideas about worthiness, social belonging, and inclusion in society as well as very concrete social practice of how to behave and ‘be’ with others to be seen and acknowledged as an equal, worthy member of society. Seen in this way kindergartens provide microcosms of the larger social context as places where pedagogues’ work to civilise children through educating them about how to navigate social boundaries between social normality and deviance. The overarching question driving this research is whether pedagogical work can change the conditions of children even in despaired contexts or only maintain them? The paper contributes empirically to how pedagogical ideas on child development are embedded in national contexts of policy implementation in situations where children push the boundaries of preferred behaviour. To accomplish this, the paper integrates an experimental logic into an interpretive interview study of pedagogues' ideas, reasoning, and preferred actions in childcare in diverse national (Brazil and Denmark) and local (rich/poor and equal/unequal) contexts providing empirics from very different national contexts with similar ideas on child development and pedagogical work. We analyse responses to three short scenarios of children on the edge of social inclusion to better understand how pedagogues interpret deviance in childcare and to explain preferred actions towards children.

ABSTRACT. The Norwegian state is heavily investing in digitalizing public services, including child welfare services (CWS). According to Lipsky (2010), CWS is a street-level bureaucracy characterized by a high demand for discretion in executing impactful decisions over families' lives. Previous studies within the realm of street-level bureaucracy literature have shown how digitalization has the potential to decrease professional discretion, for example, when digital assessment tools for guiding professional practice are introduced (Bovens & Zouridis, 2002; 2020). In our study, we demonstrate how caseworkers' use of digital and social media opens up new avenues for information gathering, which can broaden caseworkers' discretionary space. The following research question is posed in the article: How has digital technology changed the traditional role of street-level bureaucrats in conducting casework leading to administrative decisions? The data material consists of interview material from four focus group interviews with 26 caseworkers. A thematic analysis was applied to analyze the interviews. We discovered how digital technology impacted three aspects of discretionary decisions for street-level bureaucrats: channel choice (choosing which communication channels to use), information gathering (using social media and the internet for information gathering), and information admissibility (whether and how to use online information about clients). This, which we refer to as web-level bureaucracy, informs decision-making in new ways. We conclude that while discretionary power can be reduced by digital systems, as described by previous scholars, there might still be an overall increase in discretionary power if caseworkers have more authority in deciding how to acquire and apply the information that goes into the decision.

ABSTRACT. Public sector organizations persistently implement advanced technologies to optimize the work of frontline workers. However, less attention has been paid to how these technologies affect the frontline workers’ sense of work meaning and how they actively shape their work in the face of automation to attain this meaning. This article explores these questions based on fieldwork (25 interviews and over 80 hours of observations) in a Danish job center that recently tested and implemented two new automation technologies. These technologies automate previous core tasks by automatically generating (1)“full” citizen representations before meetings with the citizens as well as (2) job and activation recommendations for citizens. I draw conceptually on the concept of job crafting, combined with insights from street-level research, to explore how the caseworkers craft their work in response to these changes. The findings yield important insights into how frontline workers attain meaning through “digital engagement”, “digital avoidance”, and “digital indifference” as ways of crafting. Finally, the article discusses the practical implications of these diverse ways of crafting and invites further discussion on why it is important to better understand these diverse – and often invisible – acts of job crafting when studying public digitalization.

ABSTRACT. The discursive invention of a 'digital citizen' in Nordic welfare policy[4,7] has increasingly turned into issues of digital inclusion[10] as a matter of public debate. With the rise of digital platforms in place of traditional modes of communication at the street-level [3,5], we can see a shift in responsibility of frontline workers [2, 11]. Tasks designed for the digitally savvy user may displace citizens from the welfare system and increasing need of help with digital inclusion reaching beyond the professionals' scope of responsibilities. Following Brodkin's[1] argument that street-level organizations can be conceptualized as "first responders" to critical change, this study reports on how teachers engage with guardians’ digital issues in a fractured citizen-state relation. They engage in invisible work at the digital frontline of public education [2,6,9], stepping in with quick repair or maintenance work of public service infrastructure in anticipation of digital inclusion. The study is based on accounts of teachers and pre-school teachers working in varied socioeconomic and geographic areas in Sweden. The themes emerged from face-to-face interviews and then brought further through a survey (n=830). In this analysis we explore the written accounts and conceptualize the emerging work of helping guardians as mainly invisible: some go unnoticed, some is neglected, and some hidden from view, but consists in articulation and translation. The study is part of the project, “Infrastructures for partially digital citizens: Supporting informal welfare work in the digitized state funded by NordForsk.

ABSTRACT. The proposed paper analyses how front-line workers, conceived as street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), manage the relationship with service users through e-government in two different Italian organizations. Digital welfare is gaining increasing space in the social and political scientific debate. Several topics are emerging when examining the relationship between welfare policies and technological innovation, including e-government. Generally, e-government refers to the use of technology in public administrations (PA) in terms of increasing efficiency of procedures, openness, and effectiveness of the services provided. This issue, while still of limited interest, is not unexplored. We find contributions on how the work of SLBs changes with the introduction of digital practices and how the discretionary power of SLBs is limited or amplified by the use of automated processes. Specifically, we aim to answer the following research question: How does the discretion of SLBs change with the introduction of digitalized practices? We expect that street-level bureaucrats' discretion is modified both by the characteristics of the clients, including, for example, the degree of perceived digital competence, and by the degree of institutionalization of digital practices. We use data collected from two different case studies on two different categories of SLBs whose relationships with citizens have - to some extent - become digitalized. The first implies the relationship between labor inspectors and workers reporting irregular work situations. The second regards the digital relationship between caseworkers and the elderly or their caregivers, which became online during the pandemic in 2020. What emerges and unites the different cases is that while the introduction of e-government allows SLBs to gain more information in order to assess individuals' situations, the discretionary power exerted by front-line workers provokes only a partial use of the digital practice in favor of the traditional bureaucratic relationship.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates social workers' perceptions of their relationships with clients across three Swedish different municipalities. By selecting three municipalities at varying stages of digitalization, the study highlights differences in the descriptions of the relationship between social workers and clients, shedding light on whether, and if so, how, digital tools influence this relationship.

The decision to focus on the relationship in the study is based on previous research indicating that the relationship between the social worker and the client is central to clients´access to welfare services and the provision of public support. Consequently, the study serves as a basis for discussing whether and how clients' access to financial assistance changes with the introduction of digital tools and whether there is a risk of digital exclusion.

The results of the study indicate that the division of labor resulting from digitalization can lead to increased distance between social workers and clients, and that digitalization entails a rhetoric suggesting that more responsibility should be placed on individual citizens. This may result in increased responsibility for individual clients to manage their own cases in relation to the authorities, potentially impairing clients' access to welfare services. However, this may not necessarily be the case. The study's results also show that social workers and financial administrators largely view digital tools as a complement, expanding accessibility, and that awareness of the risks of digital exclusion fosters sensitivity to whether clients need support. In other words, the study demonstrates how social workers and/or financial administrators work to compensate for the shortcomings of technology.

ABSTRACT. Being included in society is critical for all as it gives a feeling of belonging, community, and rights and duties in relation to the state. Inclusion and trust in public services are critical for legitimacy and quality of government. However, not everyone has access to and the competences to use digital public services. These groups need support to reach and use the services to be included. Local street-level bureaucrats are often the ones providing such support to enhance inclusion.

Based on digital citizenship theory, this paper presents and analyzes both a survey of managers in local governments in the greater metropolitan area of Stockholm on how street-level bureaucrats in their institutions meet and support citizens in need of digital inclusion, and local policy documents on digital inclusion from the same area. The results reveal that the managers talk about the (non-)users in different terms and thereby address and provide support disparately. How managers and street-level bureaucrats label the users influences how they work with and address digital inclusion in state-citizen encounters, which, in turn, has implications for digital citizenship. This opens for new interpretations of digital citizenship, digital inclusion, and the possibilities for enhancing digital inclusion in the outskirts of digital citizenship.

ABSTRACT. For decades, Lipsky’s (2010) street-level theory has demonstrated its robustness. This theory is structural, meaning that overarching conditions for frontline work form individual actions. These structures operate outside the reach of individuals, which make them endure. Digitalization can nevertheless change fundamental conditions for street-level work. Indeed, automation could reduce the need for discretion, digital technologies could be efficient enough to solve resource problems, and computer-mediated communication could change core characteristics of frontline work, such as workers meeting clients face-to-face. From enduring structures to transformative digitalization, what do these conditions look like in practice?

In this session, I would like to present the concluding chapter of a book I am writing on street-level work in a digital context. I use six years of research from the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (NAV) as an empirical basis to discuss how street-level structures operate in a digital context. That is, how digital technologies strengthen, challenge, and transform street-level structures. The main argument of this book is that, while digitalization changes the context of service provision, street-level structures often operate in this new context. Digitalization tends to reproduce structural conditions when computers mediate human work. When there are humans on each side of the screen, workers still exercise discretion. Even when technologies constrain actions, workers can still work around these demands and exercise discretion in their use of technologies. Digitalization also tends to reproduce, or even reinforce, chronic resource problems. Digital technologies make services more available to clients, encouraging a demand for them (Løberg, 2021). However, some technologies do the opposite. Automation and digital products with low reproduction costs tend to counteract street-level structures, as these both can reduce discretion and respond to an “endless” demand.

ABSTRACT. Refugees in Austria face inherent structural barriers within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, resulting in a significant proportion finding themselves trapped in precarious work situations. Injustice and educational inequity are further exacerbated by the right-wing shift in national politics during the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition from 2017-2019. This period witnessed the illiberalization of the immigration system, shaping social policy through a "renationalization" strategy and welfare chauvinistic ideas (Atzmüller/Knecht 2023). Applying Lipsky's (1980) theory on street-level bureaucrats, this paper incorporates the perspectives of frontline workers in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who guide refugees on their educational journey. Low-threshold counseling plays a crucial role as structural support for individuals facing disadvantages, such as refugees navigating the fragmented post-compulsory education system from the age of 15 (Schmidtke/Guigitscher 2021). Consequently, a deeper understanding can be gained of how policies manifest on the ground and are shaped in the interactions between frontline workers and refugee clients. The paper aims to illuminate the question of how street-level workers implement and translate right-wing social policy objectives in Vocational Education and Training (VET) for refugees. These actors strive to create positive impacts as they navigate a complex web of organizational and donor guidelines, institutional job contingencies, national policies, local realities, and personal ambitions (Chopra 2020). Interviews and focus groups with frontline workers are enriched by Nancy Fraser's theory on social justice, which analyzes redistribution, recognition, and representation while exposing and contesting the exclusivity of the Austrian Vocational Education and Training system (Fraser 2005).

ABSTRACT. All over the Western world, millions of refugees are awaiting permission to obtain permanent protection in another country. This is also the case in Denmark, one of the most restrictive countries in Western Europe when it comes to immigration and integration policies. In addition to these formal policy restrictions, immigrants also face a cascade of exclusionary bureaucratic hurdles when applying for work permits, residency, and citizenship. While such frictions are largely installed to discourage ineligible applicants (and for entering the border in the first place), a street-level bureaucrat perspective on (non) citizen-state encounters in combination with policy feedback theory allow us to shed light on how the implications of these hurdles can be even severe in the longer run; they may serve as formative experiences that shape future life-paths for vulnerable societal groups and potentially compromise the applicants’ vital institutional trust in government and public authorities to the detriment of their societal integration. Using a large-scale nationwide survey among immigrants in Denmark (N = 800) from 2023, we provide critical and novel insights from this, often overlooked, administrative side of the public sector by descriptively investigating the administrative burdens associated with applying for permanent resident permit. Moreover, we show that immigrants’ length of residency negatively correlates with their institutional trust and assess to what extend this relation is driven by their experiences during these bureaucratic encounters. The findings shed light on the subtle consequences of burdensome policies within this vital, but often overlooked, policy area and its wider implications for newcomers’ integration patterns within host societies.

ABSTRACT. In 2021 and 2022, over 400,000 people sought asylum in Germany, while over 1.5 mil-lion people sought asylum in the European Union. The majority of refugees came from war and crisis zones, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, and most recently from Ukraine. The reasons for fleeing, the flight itself and experiences in the host country can be traumatic. This not only affects the well-being of refugees and their families, but also makes integration in the host country more difficult. Street-level organiza-tions such as job centres, which support the integration of refugees with a secured res-idence status, thus have to take the mental health of refugees into account. This article examines how front-line workers in job centres handle the cases of refugees. This is relevant for understanding labour market and integration policy in Germany and also offers opportunities for international comparison and for the conceptual development of research on the labour market integration of refugees. The ongoing research addresses the following questions: - What importance is attached to mental health of refugees" by front-line staff and managers, - How are mental health issues identified in refugees, - How are they addressed in counselling work, - Are mental health issues prematurely assumed by job centre staff? Our theoretical perspective is based on a street-level bureaucracy approach and opens up two perspectives: mental qualities like self-motivation can be seen as a resource for integration, whereas it also may be rational to pathologize refugees and assign them to the healthcare system. The presentation is based on around 40 interviews in six job centres in Germany, sup-plemented by observations in three of them, as well as exploratory interviews with professionals from institutions that advise refugees, particularly on health problems. The analysis follows grounded theory procedures.

ABSTRACT. This paper seeks to indicate how and why public bureaucracy and the bureaucratic ethos remain a cornerstone of the modern state. It does so by highlighting the constitutive role bureaucratic practices and ethics play in securing civil peace and security, individual and collective rights and freedoms, in both central government and front-line contexts; and how attempts to transcend, negate, or otherwise ‘disappear’ bureaucracy can have a number of deleterious consequences. The paper begins with a brief exploration of some of the tropes of ‘bureau-critique’ in historical and contemporary public service reforms and delineates some of their constitutional and political effects. The paper then proceeds to argue that a failure to acknowledge the value of bureaucracy is also reflected in the ways work in the frontline of public service delivery is approached. Although empirical studies have continuously documented how frontline work is dependent on the moral dispositions and discretionary abilities of the street-level bureaucrat, theorizing about street-level bureaucracy rarely engages with the concept of bureaucracy as other than a neutral machinery of policy implementation. Consequently, much street-level bureaucracy literature has approached discretion as individual-psychological coping mechanisms. Contrary to this view, other parts of the literature have celebrated the personal moral attitudes of the frontline worker as a way of siding with the citizen against a detached bureaucratic system. Both approaches risk replicating an understanding of frontline discretion as a threat to policy implementation and bureaucratic values of equality and neutrality. The paper challenges this position by illustrating the importance of what Weber determined as sachlichheit for frontline workers’ discretionary practices, that is, a case-based attitude that is neither self-motivated nor driven by personal moral convictions. This bureaucratic ethos, we propose, is what preconditions democratic values of equity, equality, inclusiveness and responsiveness in frontline public service delivery.

ABSTRACT. This article examines the influence of street-level bureaucrats in "Cracolândia" ("Crackland"), a socially diverse area in central São Paulo where many crack users congregate in public spaces. This region has long been a target of public interventions in security, social assistance, health, and housing, while also being shaped by the activities of various non-state actors, including community associations, NGOs, and organized crime. By focusing on this territory, we present four ethnographic case studies of women who vary significantly in their social characteristics, living conditions, and connections to the area. These case studies illustrate the diverse ways these women identify and address their problems, utilizing available resources and relationships to develop strategies and interact with a mix of state and non-state actors. Our analysis highlights the distinct treatment bureaucracies afford different individuals, emphasizing the role of these professionals in perpetuating inequalities.

ABSTRACT. The starting point for this paper is that social work interventions seek to shape relations between place/spatial environment and community to generate positive changes for citizens but that we lack conceptualizations of this configuration. Critical perspectives offer conceptualizations of how place is produced and how this production is shaped by changing relations of dominance and power (Lefebvre, 2014, Brenner, 2016, Harvey, 2013). However, they often do this in a way that is oriented towards macro-level power relations resulting in somewhat unsatisfying totalizing perspectives when attempting to understand interventions performed and acted out by street level bureaucrats. In this paper, we aim to start a conversation between the concepts of place in critical perspectives and Latour’s (2005) notions of location, conduits, channels and plug-ins in order to get a better understanding of the agency of place and spatial environment in social work practice. We engage in this conversation by way of exploring three different ways that place and spatial environment interact with social work interventions in communities: In the spatial demarcations of belonging and bordering practices; In the facilitation of meetings and interactions and barriers for interactions and care work; and in the processes of developing communal relations into commons. We argue that such a conversation between perspectives might be a productive way to succumb the limitations of both. Moreover, productive for conceptualizing the mediating role of place in the ways social work practice combat social exclusion and aim to achieve social justice for local communities. While the ANT perspective offers ways of understanding the distribution of goods through connections, their flat ontology becomes unsatisfactory if the goal is to understand how social work navigates the political production of place and the role of street-level bureaucrats in this production.

ABSTRACT. Frontline workers in public bureaucracies are required to keep written records of cases. Case records provide transparency regarding professional and administrative decision-making and are decisive for the provision of services or sanctions. They enable citizens to judge the legality of decisions and appeal if their rights are violated. Case records are hence a cornerstone of bureaucracy and the rule of law. They preserve institutional memory and enable citizens to retrospectively make sense of administrative decisions that may have significant and lifelong impact on their identity and wellbeing. Case records also serve additional purposes as boundary objects, e.g., professional coordination and citizen involvement. However, case records also reflect human choices about what to include or omit and how to present citizens’ lived experience in writing. They “produce” cases in particular ways and become tools for exercising both power and equity.

This paper presents a new research project that focuses on record keeping in child protection agencies. With interventions ranging from preventive measures to forced adoptions, child protection represents one of the most severe uses of state power over citizens. Given the high stakes and deep impact of child protection work, one would expect that proper record keeping is integral to professional norms and values. Yet, oversight authorities have persistently questioned the quality and legality of record keeping in practice, in Denmark and other countries. Child protection services therefore serve as a critical case to explore the significance, complexity and trade-offs associated with record keeping in frontline work. Based on organizational ethnography, narrative interviews, and analysis of actual case records, the project addresses the following research questions: How and why do frontline workers prioritize different potentially conflicting purposes of record keeping in everyday practice? How are these priorities reflected in actual case records? And what are the implications for citizens and stakeholders?

ABSTRACT. Market mechanisms as policy levers to drive service improvement, have long featured in Australia’s public programs. This includes those that involve complex care and support like Workforce Australia’s Specialist Programs and Disability Employment Services (DES). The government purchaser now engages with and selects private service providers via competitive tendering, while enabling service users’ power to choose service providers with whom they want to work. With outcome-based payment, the government purchaser does not prescribe a practice model. Contracted providers instead ‘enjoy’ some extent of flexibility, usually referred to as a ‘black box’, as long as desired outcomes are achieved. Evidence so far, however, indicates that such an NPM-inspired policy design does not work well for highly disadvantaged jobseekers who face complex barriers to employment like a disability and a criminal record. It is also criticised for not enabling innovative and evidence-based practices in supporting these vulnerable jobseekers, which has frustrated not only service users but also service providers who are committed to meeting higher standards of service quality. This in-progress study goes back to the frontline to re-explore the whole service as an end-to-end model (that has so far ‘hidden’ in service providers’ black box). Using mixed methodology for data collection (e.g. semi-structured interviews with jobseekers and employment consultants and secondary data), we’ll examine a self-proclaimed ‘high performing’ service model in supporting jobseekers with moderately intellectual disability under the DES program. With this case study, we aim to establish evidence on the model’s performance and importantly, identify its key features, practices and approaches that are instrumental in generating outcomes for jobseekers. The analysis will be positioned in the broader commissioning framework of the DES program so as to also understand the extent to which the model is enabled and/or constrained by the program design.

ABSTRACT. In the German Social Code II there is a new service, called “holistic employment-accompanying support” It is part of the “Participation Opportunities Act” and the “Citizens' Benefits Act”. For long-term unemployed it combines subsidized employment with an accompanying support. To analyse the practise of that service it is to be conceived as an embedded element of a real-life triad, a constellation of different actors. It consists of three elements - the caregivers (who are actually classical street-level workers), the supported employees and the representatives of the employment companies. These elements stand in three different types of relationships to each other: (1) the caregivers and their supported employees, who function here as clients, in the relationship of a working alliance; (2) the supported employees, here in the role of employees, and their superiors in the relationship of an employment relationship and (3) the caregivers and employers of the supported employees in the relationship of the new form of employment support. Empirically it is of interest, how the street-level-bureaucrats maintain a supporting relation to the companies, where their clients work. This type of service is new in Germany and the jobcentre-employees have no experience with those demands. The paper reconstructs shortly the structure of the service as it is depicted in the law. The main part of the presentation will deal with the various forms of service delivery in the framework of the triadic constellation. It shows how especially a lack of cooperation between the street-level-bureaucrats and the employment companies endangers employment stability. Secondly it addresses the item of continuity of the working alliance and makes clear, that discontinuity of the service delivery devalues the quality of the support. Empirically the paper is based in the comprising evaluation of the participation chances act, utilising different, qualitative and quantitative data sources.

ABSTRACT. In the last decade, there has been a policy shift in many European countries towards employer-oriented integration, particularly for the long-term unemployed. The formula "from train then place to place then train" frames this aptly (Dall et al. 2023: 107). This change varies from country to country. In Denmark, the social assistance reform in 2014 is an example of this (Klindt et al. 2020, Caswell/Larsen 2021), in Germany the ‘Teilhabechancengesetz' since 2019 (IAB 2021: 10ff.). The policy shift leads to service and organisational innovations within the employment services and a change of the work of the street-level bureaucrats. Integration pathways are developed together with applicants in a strength-oriented manner through intensive counselling formats. A personal, distribution- and applicant-oriented approach and an increased depth of services are promising approaches for employers (e.g. BMAS 2021; Ingold/Mc Gurk 2023). Contrary to standard processes, new formats require closer coordination and cooperation between applicant- and employer-oriented specialists. Our project "New ways of co-operation between employee and employer services" examines which new cooperation formats and organisational forms have been introduced and how the work of street-level bureaucrats has changed (Berkel 2020). In the project, we compare these developments between Denmark, Germany and Austria. The results show that the traditional division of labor has been bridged or completely overcome in all our cases. The new co-operation formats challenge the applicant-oriented specialists, who often find themselves confronted with a distribution logic as opposed to their more socio-pedagogical orientation. The employer-oriented professionals rate the new formats much more positively and motivationally. Relational coordination (Bolton et al. 2021) has been rare, however, it offers potential for further improvement of cooperation formats.

ABSTRACT. Active labour market policies (ALMP) are a key approach in European integration policies. While street level organizations have key roles in implementing such policies, this paper investigates employers’ roles in this field as an extension of the welfare and employment agencies’ work. The paper reports from a research project of a local ALMP program that targets immigrants in Bergen municipality in Norway, with the aim of transitioning them into job training and/or employment. A range of sectors and types of employment are represented, but low-skilled jobs are most prevalent. The research is situated within theoretical orientations of street level bureaucracy theory and symbolic boundary work. I explore employers as moral agents. I find that employers across business sectors generally talk positively and enthusiastically about engaging in work inclusion with migrants, and they draw lines against social exploitation. However, their orientations and motivations vary in terms of social responsibility and will to ‘making good’ on the one hand, and work demand and pragmatism on the other. The paper analyses various versions of boundary work that are drawn related to conditions for work inclusion, related to candidates’ motivation, culture, and skills, and how to distinguish between promising and non-promising candidates for employment.

ABSTRACT. Plagued by non-take-up and red tape, the application procedure for social assistance is considered cumbersome by applicants and public officials alike. Automation is often believed to be part of the solution. Yet, social work is considered difficult to automate as it demands individually tailored policy implementation from social workers. Indeed, discretion is considered essential to grant social assistance adequately. In other words, the question remains how automation and discretion are balanced in street-level bureaucracies.

In literature, often highly innovative, singular case studies are discussed. The focus on such cases neglects the interrelatedness of the decision-making reality of street-level bureaucrats and leaves partially automated procedures understudied.

This paper attributes to the literature by researching the link between automation and the de jure discretion of street-level bureaucrats in social policy. More specifically, I answer the question of how de jure discretion and automation are linked throughout the eligibility check for social assistance in Belgium. To do so, I combined a legal analysis and qualitative empirical social research. More specifically, I conducted interviews in four social centres in Flanders, Belgium.

My data suggests that in a patchwork of automated and human actions, automated actions are mostly introduced in steps of the social assistance eligibility check that leave less de jure discretion to street-level bureaucrats. Yet, I found examples where the de jure discretion of social workers is diminished by automation in two ways, first, by standardizing the interpretation and application of the Law, and second, by nudging street-level bureaucrats to make certain decisions. Even though respondents made critical remarks on automation in social work in general, they didn’t make the same remarks regarding their own practice. This suggests that in such a patchwork of automation, the impact of automation on discretion bears the risk of staying under the radar.

ABSTRACT. **Paolo Rossi and Francesca Maci will both present this paper**

The pandemic urged social workers to meet clients and service users remotely, losing direct and face-to-face encounters. This shift challenged their discretionary power, as the forced adoption of digital tools to ensure the continuity of their activities posed ethical, deontological and methodological challenges. Indeed, many professionals questioned the compatibility and appropriateness of digital tools in the field of social work. This issue had already been raised in the pre-pandemic period, albeit with less attention. The central question concerned the possibility of reconciling professional discretion with what some authors described as a digital mindset, reflecting on the critical aspects of such an approach in social work. The paper presents the results of a study conducted in 2022 on digital innovation in social work. The empirical research was conducted through 75 interviews with social workers who were asked to report on their reactions to this sudden change and to reflect on the extent to which innovations in their practices may or may not be legitimate. The analysis of the data highlighted some key issues. Under adverse conditions, many professionals acted by introducing even more discretion into their actions. They acted like bricoleurs who had to 'patch up' a completely disorganised scenario to continue to provide closeness, support and responsiveness to the needs of people in vulnerable circumstances. At the same time, many professionals have feared the advance of digital technologies, expressing concern about the critical implications of the digitalisation of relationships that, by their very nature, require face-to-face interaction. The responses of many professionals have oscillated between rejection and resilience and, conversely, between acceptance and innovation.

ABSTRACT. Aligned with the global trend towards digitization, digital automation has become a politically endorsed strategy to enhance efficiency and transparency in public service delivery. One such example is the adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in administering Social Assistance (SA) in Sweden. While SA is a municipally organized means-tested subsidy for the most financially vulnerable, RPA functions as highly standardized software executing administrative tasks based on predetermined rules. Employing a sociomaterial perspective, this article analyses group interviews conducted in four Swedish municipalities to explore if and how RPA adoption configures the dynamics of SA casework administration and practice. Findings suggest that RPA adoption does not inherently lead to expected enhancements such as faster and fairer eligibility determinations or a more client-centric approach in SA casework. Instead, the instrumentalist approach of leveraging digital tools to achieve specific outcomes, combined with the task delineation required by RPA, appears incongruent with the nuanced nature of casework. While caseworkers also attest to organizational adjustments and a more instrumental approach towards clients’ situations alongside RPA adoption, this study underscores the inadequacy of the rationalist notion of segmenting SA casework in order to achieve efficiency in casework that, by law, should be based on individual judgements by professional social workers.

ABSTRACT. Abstract This paper explores the experience of two Arab-origin social workers during the Syrian refugee crisis in Germany.

Background In light of increasing cultural diversity, debates on cultural competence have assumed a prominent place in professional social work discourses across North America and Western Europe. But the role of diversity in client-worker interactions at the street-level remains obscure. Despite persistent definitional and operational ambiguity, cultural competence is now widely considered an essential dimension of effective and ethical social work practice. The various proposed concepts in essence share an emphasis on the growing importance of social workers’ ability to practice across difference. But beyond this general acknowledgement, there is little agreement as to what exactly defines cultural competence or how to assess its efficacy. This is in part due to the lack of empirical studies examining the role of diversity in professional practice, including the experience of non-autochthonous social workers. This study draws on the professional social work literature on cultural competence as well as allied literatures on racially representative bureaucracy and street-level bureaucracy to frame an exploratory foray into the experiences of two immigrant-origin social workers during the Syrian refugee crisis in Germany.

Findings The findings illustrate a professional practice characterized by the tension between a sense of knowing based on shared experiences with clients and their functions as representatives of a state whose public discourse on belonging may not unequivocally recognize their own claims of membership. While these insights are limited by the idiosyncrasies of the empirical cases, they provide much needed nuance for diversity discourses in social work and yield important questions that might guide future inquiries into the role and experience of diverse professionals and their practice in Germany.

ABSTRACT. Following the expansion of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, the European Union put the Temporary Protection Directive into effect. This has a direct impact on street-level organizations in the member states, including job centres in Germany. Job centres are institutional gatekeepers on people's path into the German society and its employment system.

Refugees from war and crisis areas other than Ukraine only become clients of the job centres after long asylum procedures and if their application has been approved. For Ukrainian refugees the situation is different: without an asylum procedure, they quickly receive a residence permit. Shortly after entering the country they are supported by job centres and receive comparatively high welfare state benefits as well as full access to the labour market and social rights. As part of the activating integration policy, job centres have the political mandate to quickly place Ukrainian refugees in particular in integration measures and gainful employment.

How do frontline workers translate these political goals and legal frameworks into street-level practice? How do they experience and evaluate the unequal legal categorization of refugees from Ukraine compared to other refugees? How do they deal with this inequality? How do they themselves categorize and describe refugees from Ukraine in comparison to other refugees and welfare clients? The paper focuses on these questions and is based on an interdisciplinary research project on job centres that consult refugees. Empirically, we follow a mixed methods approach: First, the job centres took part in a standardized online survey. In-depth qualitative case studies were then carried out in selected job centres. The paper presents empirical findings on the translation of politically and legally initiated new inequalities among welfare client groups by a central street-level organization. Theoretically, the paper is framed by concepts of unequal civic stratification, street-level bureaucracies and institutional gatekeeping.

ABSTRACT. Advanced democracies have periodically struggled to manage high and unforeseen inflow of asylum seekers fleeing conflict and persecution. In Denmark, as in many other countries, asylum seekers are placed in residential centers while awaiting adjudication of their asylum claims -- a waiting period that may last for months or, often, for years. This paper uses data from the authors' street-level research in Danish asylum centers to examine informal strategies residents develop to manage their lives while waiting in this restricted environment at the edge of the welfare state with few and only vaguely defined social rights. This inquiry brings both a street-level and ethnographic sensibility to investigation of the restrictive conditions that shape the possibilities for asylum-seekers to manage their lives and the informal strategies they develop to push back against those restrictions and extend their zones of possibilities. The analysis illuminates the realities of life-while-waiting and how asylum-seekers attempt to manage basic elements of their lives, among them living conditions, choices about work and family, and preparing for the future.

This inquiry differs theoretically and methodologically from other types of research on asylum-seekers by clearly placing these struggles in the organizational context in which they occur, recognizing the importance of the organizational settings within which asylum claimants’ everyday struggles take place. It examines how the street-level organizations (SLOs) that operate residential centers shape the opportunities and constraints of asylum life and how asylum-seekers respond. This approach extends the reach of street-level theory and research beyond staff/practitioners, whose discretionary practices have been well examined, to account for the discretionary practices of claimants/clients, considering how they develop and how they matter.

ABSTRACT. Political polarisation is on the rise in democracies around the world. Partisan political identities are growing stronger, to the point of encompassing and giving meaning to other social identities. As political identities crystallise and cluster with other cultural, ideological, geographic and racial identities, they increasingly influence everyday interactions in society. The delivery of public services brings people from different social backgrounds into intense contact. As the politics of identity become central to current waves of political division, frontline workers are acutely aware of the changing significance of their own identities and those of their students, patients and clients. What happens to the delivery of public services when the policies frontline workers are expected to implement become a battlefield of political and cultural conflict? In this presentation, I will argue that political polarisation – broadly understood as the distancing of political attitudes away from the centre, towards ideological extremes – can have a direct effect on how policies are implemented since decisions made by frontline workers are not only the result of institutional and organisational factors, but cultural and political ones as well. To do so, this paper will examine how the practices of different groups of frontline workers working in politicised fields – drawing on ethnographic anecdotes from different policy domains in The Netherlands and Brazil – are shaped by transformations in their socio-political worlds.

ABSTRACT. This paper aspires to introduce the concept of ‘de-caring’ to capture the not-uncommon practices of actively withdrawing an ethic of care through political actions and policy decisions. To explore the theme, we trace the effect that radical policy change has on the discretionary work of street level bureaucrats (SLB) in Public Employment Services. Our study of the social life of a policy, draws on our decade-long ethnography of the Irish government’s Pathway to Work policy.

We situate this effort in the established feminist literature on the ethic of care, discourses on caring organisations with a mission to care, and care within PES, both government led and NGO support services. Our study draws on the policy document, launch and attendant materials, before exploring its social action through interviews with service users (n=156, in five waves), flaneurs of dole offices (n=83), a media corpus of all national titles (2012-2022), parliamentary debates and committees, application processes, internal Government department documents released under freedom of information, as well as expert interviews with caseworkers, academics, government department leaders and politicians.

Revealed, as both a matter of policy and practice, is the withdrawal of care— a practice we identify as de-caring of organisations, working through Joan Tronto’s five stages of caring. Finally, we suggest that caring and de-caring movements are an important analytical lens to explore policy, institutions and the relational practices of care giving and care receiving between SLB and Citizens.

ABSTRACT. In Brazil, the health policy within the prison system - National Comprehensive Health Care Policy for People Deprived of Liberty - is implemented by prison primary care teams. The design of this policy organizes these teams to work intersectorally, that is, they need to collaborate with other sectors and to navigate and deal with different and often conflicting demands. As street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), these teams face challenges when implementing health policy intersectorally in a complex environment like the prison system. This research aims to reflect on the impact that spaces permeated by prejudices and inequalities, such as the prison system, can have on policy implementation, which becomes even more relevant when SLBs are also responsible for intersectoral coordination. This paper’s objective is twofold. First, to understand how the literature has examined SLB through the lens of intersectorality. Second, to analyze how SLBs implementing health care in prisons navigate policy conflicts and adverse contexts in their work. The literature shows how access to healthcare in prisons is a "wicked problem," meaning it is dynamic and multi-causal, requiring more interactive approaches. Preliminary data collected indicate that problems in healthcare delivery in prisons are not isolated, but interconnected to other aspects of the prison environment, such as the quality of food, the precariousness of cells, access to water, among other issues that go beyond the scope of the healthcare sector. Furthermore, it was observed that these SLBs need to implement health policies in a unique environment: one regulated by the logic of security, with specificities that are significantly different from the logic of health, and a lack of clarity regarding each sector's competencies.

ABSTRACT. Approaches to delivering welfare-to-work and employment services has significantly shifted towards a workfarist model, emphasising continuous job search and behavioural conditionality to foster labor market reintegration. This shift, marking a departure from human capital development strategies over the last quarter-century, aligns with changes in the governance of activation. These changes involve more rigorous performance evaluations of organisations and staff at the street level and the adoption of market-driven implementation frameworks.

Despite its intentions, the workfare model faces challenges in facilitating the inclusion of individuals who are long-term unemployed, particularly those facing complex barriers to employment. Research highlights the detrimental impact of workfare models on participants' psychological well-being (Carter & Whitworth, 2017), with critiques framing employment services as "violent bureaucracies" (Redman & Fletcher, 2022) that inflict social harm. This concern is magnified by evidence that many claimants have histories of trauma, affecting their interaction with welfare systems and career development. The call for welfare systems to adopt a trauma-informed approach is growing, yet the practical implications for welfare-to-work services remain uncertain. Questions arise about the feasibility of integrating trauma-informed principles—such as choice, empowerment, and collaboration—within mandatory activation frameworks that enforce behavioural conditions and impose sanctions for non-compliance.

This paper presents a scoping review on trauma-informed methods in welfare-to-work and employment services. Although trauma-informed practices are well-established in child welfare and youth services, their application in activation and employment contexts remains largely conjectural, focusing more on potential benefits than on evidence-based applications.

The review is part of a larger project in collaboration with an Australian employment services provider aiming to integrate trauma-informed practices. Over the next two years, researchers from the University of Melbourne will observe how this organisation implements trauma-informed strategies across a range of local offices, particularly within Australia's primary mandatory activation program.

ABSTRACT. Change is inherent to public policy, both in practice and in research. By definition, public policy consists of a desired change and the means for its achievement. Promoting change aiming to improve justice, equity, and public well-being is the origin of Policy Sciences as a field of research. Current policy scholarship tends to refer to change as a top-down phenomenon, whereby decision-making and implementation are two separate, sequential processes. Moreover, the explicit distinction between top-down and bottom-up approaches is ascribed to policy implementation and rarely referred to in other lines of research.

Street-level implementation signifies the shift to a bottom-up approach in policy implementation by identifying public policy with officials’ actions during the direct delivery of public services. Nevertheless, street-level research itself often reflects a top-down approach by focusing on downward processes, mainly on what shapes officials’ encounters with the public and its outcomes. Taking a downward approach is also reflected in the tendency of street-level studies to take existing policy arrangements, or the introduction of a newly introduced policy, as given, whereas the possibility that implementation will trigger a formal policy change is understudied. Hence, street-level implementation is rarely approached as influencing or inspiring the design of new policy solutions.

Current dominance of the top-down perspective allows only a simplified perspective on the role of implementers in decision-making. Shifting the focus to upward processes in policymaking suggests a more complicated and reciprocal relationship between the design and implementation of public policies. In particular, Bottom-up Policy Change captures the possibility that street-level organizations may serve as a setting to explore, experience, and experiment with new policy instruments. Shifting attention to Bottom-up Policy Change draws on accumulated research, including studies of Policy Dissonance, Street-Level Divergence, and Street-level Policy change, all of which demonstrate upward processes in policymaking.

Considering reciprocity of design and implementation may contribute to policy research, for example, established policy change theories, such as the Advocacy Coalition Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium, Multiple Streams, and Policy Diffusion may be enriched by offering to consider both downward and upward perspectives on policy change. Focusing on upward phenomena in policymaking may also contribute to bridging lines of research that rarely correspond, such as street-level implementation and co-production, or public management and policy implementation. Finally, an upward perspective on policymaking can also enhance the potential contribution of the unique professional and contextual knowledge accumulated during direct interaction with the public as well as acknowledge direct-delivery encounters as facilitating democracy on the ground.