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ABSTRACT Interrogating the tension between care and control in the work of social services staff in Belgian immigration detention centres, this article sheds light on the uses of discretion from the perspective of Bourdieu's concept of illusio. I argue that social services staff's use of discretionary power must be understood at the crossroads of their belief in their professional ethos and the power relations within these centres, which enabled them to frame the element of control as something they had to deal with professionally, rather than something to which they contributed. This sheds light on both the uses of discretion as well as on the articulation of care and control in border humanitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What explains ethnic minorities' attachment to the state? Our current understanding has primarily considered structural factors, particularly access to political power and modernization. Diverging from existing explanations, I theorize that mundane experiences with the state, in street-level bureaucracy, can inform ethnic minorities' attitudes toward the state. What they see and experience in street-level bureaucracy signals to ethnic minorities what their prospects might be in a country that is politically dominated by another ethnic group. Leveraging extensive fieldwork in Myanmar, I show that ethnic minorities who have had positive encounters with street-level bureaucrats express stronger attachment to the state. This is the case even when an ethnic group is in direct conflict with the state. I also find that service experiences are more relevant in explaining ethnic minorities' attachment to the state compared to factors highlighted in existing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Access to health services for asylum seekers is legally restricted in Germany. The law is subject to interpretation, therefore the chance of receiving care is not equally distributed among asylum seekers. What services are provided to whom is ultimately decided by health professionals and government employees. The respective prioritization processes and criteria are not transparent. We sought to understand how legal restrictions are translated into daily practices and how this affects the health system. We aimed to outline the complex process of cost coverage for health services for asylum seekers and provide insights into common decision-making criteria. Methods: We conducted an ethnographic exploration of routines in two outpatient clinics in two federal states over the course of three months, doing participant and non-participant observation. Additionally, we interviewed 21 professionals of health care and government organizations, and documented 110 applications for cost coverage of medical services and their outcome. In addition to qualitative data analysis and documentation, we apply a system-theoretical perspective to our findings. Results: To perform legal restrictions a cross-sectoral prioritization process of medical services has been implemented, involving health care and government institutions. This changes professional practices, responsibilities and (power) relations. Involved actors find themselves at the intersection of several, oftentimes conflicting priorities, since "doing it right" might be seen differently from a legal, medical, economic, or political perspective. The system-theoretical analysis reveals that while actors have to bring different rationales into workable arrangements this part of the medical system transforms, giving rise to a sub-system that incorporates migration political rationales. Conclusions: Health care restrictions for asylum seekers are implemented through an organizational linking of care provision and government administration, resulting in a bureaucratization of practice. Power structures at this intersection of health and migration policy, that are uncommon in other parts of the health system are thereby normalized. Outpatient clinics provide low-threshold access to health services, but paradoxically they may unintentionally stabilize health inequities, if prioritization criteria and power dynamics are not made transparent. Health professionals should openly reflect on conflicting rationales. Training, research and professional associations need to empower them to stay true to professional ethical principles and international conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite long‐standing recognition in collective memory scholarship that commemorative sites are places of deep cultural meaning, fieldwork evidence collected at the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, DC, suggests that visitors primarily engaged with mnemonic resources in a superficial fashion. This paper explores how interpretive park rangers, who are tasked with engaging the public to discuss the nation's history, nevertheless strived to deliver informational, interpretive services to the visiting public. Findings show that rangers, conceptualized in this paper as street‐level bureaucrats, developed roles and routine lines of action that hinged on how they imagined and constructed their audiences. This paper demonstrates how street‐level bureaucrats variably conceive of their clients at the pre‐interactional stage, thus identifying an underexplored dimension of discretion in frontline service work. Additionally, this paper contributes to collective memory research by contextualizing mnemonic deliberation within contexts of mnemonic agents' workplace dynamics, showing how organizational expectations shape discourses of difficult, contentious histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British employment service delivery has shifted towards a model primed on core 'workfare' objectives – that is, enforcing behavioural compliance to work-related duties and expanding participation in work. Nevertheless, significant gaps remain in current knowledge about how workfare is implemented daily by frontline staff. The existing international street-level research on employment service delivery reveals how workers use a range of discretionary practices to achieve workfare objectives. Yet this research largely ignores how, in practice, a key aspect of enforcing behavioural compliance and encouraging work participation is through contending with its opposite – behavioural non-compliance. Analysing 13 interviews with frontline staff, this article contributes to street-level knowledge by revealing the ways managers and workers in British employment services are encouraged to detect and correct variations of claimant non-compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Representative bureaucracy theory has mainly been used to understand how identities related to race, ethnicity, and gender influence how bureaucrats administer public services. Although representation through lived experience has expanded the scope of the theory, this theoretical thread has mostly focused on the perspectives of management. The purpose of this article is to employ lived experience representative bureaucracy theory to understand the influence of first responders' experiences with substance use disorder (drug addiction) on their viewpoints regarding the humanness and deservingness of clients with opioid use disorder. We analyze data from a survey of emergency medical services (EMS)-providers and police officers in the United States (N = 3,500) with ordinary least squares regression and Hayes' PROCESS macro to test for mediation. Results show that indirect and direct lived experiences—respectively, having a family member or friend who has experienced addiction and believing addiction has had a direct impact on respondents' lives—predict increases in client deservingness, mediated by ascribed humanness and driven largely by EMS-providers. However, responding to opioid overdoses—an on-the-job lived experience—is associated with reduced deservingness and ascribed humanness. The study adds to the literature by expanding representative bureaucracy theory beyond race, ethnicity, and gender; broadening representation through lived experience beyond a focus on managers to include street-level bureaucrats; and incorporating concepts from social and political psychology that have yet to be integrated into representative bureaucracy studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bribery and other forms of petty corruption typically arise in bureaucratic encounters and are a common element of the everyday experience of the state in many countries, particularly in places with weak institutions. This type of corruption is especially troublesome because it creates direct costs for citizens when accessing services and benefits to which they are formally entitled. However, only a few studies deal with how situational attributes of bureaucratic interactions create incentives for citizens to pay bribes and opportunities for street-level bureaucrats to demand them. We contribute to filling this gap by providing evidence that administrative burdens increase the chance of bribery. We do so by analyzing the prevalence of (attempted) bribery in more than 63,000 interactions across 20 different types of bureaucratic encounters, ranging from paying taxes to accessing essential services, using multilevel logistic regression analysis. Our study contributes to understanding the possible consequences of administrative burdens and the factors conducive to petty corruption in specific citizen–state interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the reasons of the violent enforcement stereotype of Chengguan. To achieve this objective, 55 semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with street vendors, Chengguan staff and the public in 2022 and 2023. The analysis drew upon street-level bureaucracy theory and employed inductive content analysis to thoroughly examine the interview data. The research revealed that the public commonly associates Chengguan with violent enforcement, mainly due to a pattern of violent tendencies and behaviors observed in specific enforcement actions. A deeper analysis indicated that the ambiguous positioning of Chengguan department, the low thresholds of staff recruitment, and the perfunctory accountability of staff dismissal are the root reasons for violent enforcement by Chengguan. Additionally, the negative portrayal of Chengguan in self-media and the reduced effectiveness of traditional authoritative media in conveying objective information have both shaped and entrenched this negative image. This paper extends the application of street-level bureaucracy theory, offering a new perspective and analytical framework to better understand the stereotype of violent enforcement by Chengguan. Moreover, the study presents practical strategies to address or mitigate the negative stereotype. To our knowledge, this work represents a comprehensive and systematic theoretical discussion on the stereotype of violent enforcement by Chengguan, providing significant theoretical insights and practical relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing use of digital tools in policy implementation has altered the work of street‐level bureaucrats who are granted substantial discretionary power in decision‐making. Digital tools can constrain discretionary power, like the curtailment thesis proposed, or serve as action resources, like the enablement thesis suggested. This article assesses empirical evidence of the impact of digital tools on street‐level work and decision‐making in service‐oriented and regulation‐oriented organisations based on a systematic literature review and thematic qualitative content analysis of 36 empirical studies published until 2021. The findings demonstrate different effects with regard to the role of digital tools and the core tasks of the public administration, depending on political and managerial goals and consequent system design. Leading or decisive digital tools mostly curtail discretion, especially in service‐oriented organisations. In contrast, an enhanced information base or recommendations for actions enable decision‐making, in particular in regulation‐oriented organisations. By showing how street‐level bureaucrats actively try to resist the curtailing effects caused by rigid design to address individual circumstances, for instance by establishing ways of coping like rule bending or rule breaking, using personal resources or prioritising among clients, this study demonstrates the importance of the continuation thesis and the persistently crucial role of human judgement in policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Socjologiczne is the property of Studia Socjologiczne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bestuurskunde is the property of Boom uitgevers Den Haag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Street-level workers are notoriously difficult to manage. Over the years, scholars have highlighted the importance of social dynamics and informal and collective leadership in street-level contexts. Yet, the question of how formal managers can support street-level workers' performance and well-being remains underexplored. Building on insights from the street-level and generic leadership literatures, the authors seek to delineate a role for formal managers that takes seriously the particularities of the street-level context. The authors develop a concept of street-level leadership that is underpinned by a relational approach and focused on activating street-level workers' professional knowledge and building supportive communities, with the purpose of supporting professional uses of discretion, conscientious prioritizations, and the ability to handle moral dilemmas and emotional strain. Empirical examples illustrate street-level leadership in practice. Future research should explore the proposed mechanisms and effects of street-level leadership, including important HRM outcomes such as job satisfaction, retention, and burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Street-level bureaucracy (SLB) has been essential to public administration in executing government policies and shaping public service quality. This paper aims to uncover the knowledge gaps and ongoing challenges to inform future analysis on SLB. Design/methodology/approach – This literature review analyzes the publications on SLB between 1971 and 2023 by using various bibliometric methods, including trend analysis, network co-occurrence, and thematic evolution from 994 journal articles extracted from the Scopus database. Findings – Research on SLB has shifted focus from specific issues such as work efficiency in the early 2000s to broader themes like governance methods, policy implementation, social policy, and public service delivery. This change reflects the adaptation of the field to global challenges and policy evolutions. International collaborations have contributed to the evolution, enriching SLB discourse with cross-cultural insights and comparative analyses. The partnerships have led to innovative strategies and models to address the challenges faced by SLB, enhancing public service delivery and policy implementation. Originality/value – This paper shows the need to integrate the shift in SLB from specific practices to broader administrative themes with the global insights from international collaborations. In underrepresented regions, such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, research is suggested to enrich the global understanding of SLB.

Street-level bureaucrats shape policy through using discretion in their interactions with citizens and service users in delivering public services. Discretion allows street-level bureaucrats to bridge between public policy and the complex, individual, human situations they encounter. Drawing on insights from feminist institutionalism, this article establishes gender as a relevant analytical category in understanding discretion. We set out three analytical propositions: street-level bureaucrats work in gendered institutional contexts that shape their discretion; street-level bureaucrats are gendered actors, whose discretion is shaped by their individual gendered dispositions; and street-level bureaucrats' discretion has gendered effects. We investigate these propositions through a case study of the early implementation of the classification of misogyny as a hate crime among police forces in England and Wales. In addressing this analytical intersection between street-level bureaucracy and feminist institutionalism, we bring a gendered perspective to street-level bureaucracy, and a focus on how rules are interpreted to feminist institutionalism, forging new ground in public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street-level resolutions are reached when street-level bureaucrats resolve disputes between citizens and other state officials. However, little is known about the factors that influence the tendencies in such resolutions to accept the citizens' claims. Such knowledge is important for exposing street-level bureaucrats' state or citizen favouritism which can shift the public's perceptions of those serving at the front lines of governance. This study examines real-world street-level resolutions (administrative lower-court rulings) and finds that those made, jointly or alone, by deciders who are career members of mixed-teams that include non-career lay-official members, have a higher tendency to favour the citizen's claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State authorities in Europe invest immense resources in what the EU insists on calling the ‘fight against illegal migration’. Based on ethnographic research in two German cities, this paper shows that a tough approach towards illegalised migration can only be implemented through state practices that operate at the margins of, or even cross, the boundaries of what is legally permissible. This argument is developed through an analysis of informal practices that frontline staff in registry offices and migration administrations deploy to prevent, or at least disturb, illegalised migrants’ attempts to regularise their status by becoming the parent of child that is entitled to German citizenship. Drawing on the autonomy of migration approach, I use migrants’ struggles within and against Germany’s migration and citizenship regime as an epistemic device to expose three kinds of informally institutionalised counter-tactics of street-level bureaucrats that qualify as unlawfare. The analysis shows that officials, in their attempts to forestall migrants’ practices of self-legalisation, frequently resort to practices that are legally questionable or outright unlawful themselves. Ultimately, not only a tough stance on illegalised migration, but the very production of migrant illegality emerges as contagious as it implicates an illegalisation of state practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a dearth of theoretical and empirical work examining street-level land administration officials (SLAOs) in post-conflict peri-urban communities in sub-Saharan Africa. This article investigates how SLAOs deliver land administration services under a hybrid governance regime in a localised post-conflict environment, and how they balance strict adherence to the rule of law and a flexible application of rules and regulations. The study is based on a case study in Mombasa. The theory argues that, in Waitiki, SLAOs evaluate their situation and formulate a range of strategies to deliver services and deal with poor governance challenges like corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is very important to examine street-level bureaucrats who operate closest to the citizens in determining the effects of public policies. It is an unquestionable fact accepted by everyone that street-level bureaucrats, who occupy a very key position in the interaction of high-level bureaucratic and political elites with citizens, fill a very important gap in the public service. These civil servants, who work at the front lines of the public service, have been scrutinized in every aspect over the past 40 years. Street-level bureaucracy, which is the subject of many quantitative studies at local, regional and national levels, has also found its place in theoretical discussions on public administration. The first issue addressed in these studies is the nature, effects, and determinants of the discretion exercised by street-level bureaucrats. Secondly, discussions regarding the roles of street-level bureaucrats within the institution and their hierarchical relations with the bureaucratic elite also occupy a significant place in the literature. Thirdly, there are research articles that discuss the critical role of street-level bureaucrats in the implementation of public policies. In addition to these, fourthly, there are also interdisciplinary articles that contribute to the expansion of the literature. In this study, a schematic review of the street-level bureaucracy literature is made under these four main headings and the most cited studies in the literature are briefly analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the extent to which neurodiverse individuals experience fair representation in public sector organizations in Egypt and the main factors that foster such representation. A systematic qualitative research method was used with data collected through semi-structured interviews with 36 street-level bureaucrats who have the title "general manager." The findings show the underrepresentation of neurodiverse individuals in the Egyptian public sector. Moreover, we consider the three main categories of barriers hindering the active participation of people with neurological conditions in the Egyptian public sector to be as follows: individual barriers (inability to create social dialogue, lower educational level), organizational barriers (neurotypical employees lack the socio-cultural readiness to accept neuro-atypical colleagues, traditional means of recruiting, lack of flexibility of jobs in public organizations) and national barriers (high unemployment rate among neurodiverse individuals in Western countries, discretionary power granted to public employees, slow adoption of the social approach to disability in the Egyptian context). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy is not only made by street-level bureaucrats at the frontlines. It is also made by their superiors—street-level managers—who set the organizational conditions through which street-level bureaucrats act. Although scholars have documented how street-level bureaucrats cope with the pressures of their work by, for instance, breaking or bending rules, the question of how street-level managers cope with the pressures of their own work has received less attention. Drawing from ethnographic data of a network of publicly funded health centers in the Midwestern US, I show how street-level managers use an interaction ritual with role distance to cope. Role distance is mobilized when the person uses communicative expressions such as laughter or cries of frustration to convey a critical distance from what her organizational role prescribes. Based on classic sociological insights, I posit that role distance can function as follows. It can help managers preserve self by allowing them to define their putatively "more-human self" from their work, create a feeling of collectiveness as they orient themselves to the shared frustrations yet obligations that their role engenders, which enables them to coordinate on carrying out tasks, even those that rub against their preferences and well-intentions. Taken together, I suggest that role distance can offer a coping function, which enables them to hold in abeyance individual and collective responsibility for the decisions they make. I then highlight the benefits and unintended consequences of role distance and posit what academics and practitioners can do to ensure that street-level managers use role distance toward more productive ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrative burden research shows that onerous and dysfunctional policy design can have detrimental outcomes among policy recipients. But less is known about the intermediary role played by the street-level bureaucrats who enforce these policies in practice. Using two separate surveys of 775 unemployment benefit recipients and 107 counselors in the Danish unemployment benefit system, I find that recipients report higher levels of administrative burden when served by counselors who themselves experience red tape from the rules and procedures they have to implement. The findings have important policy implications by showing that experiences of frictions among those assigned to convert onerous policies into practice can exacerbate administrative burden among their clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures to limit COVID‐19's spread were vital at the pandemic's onset. While some churches complied with public health mandates, others resisted them. Some religious ceremonies depend on third parties independent of the church. Funerals may require mortuary services overseen by funeral directors. Religious groups that may otherwise resist public health directives may comply when they depend on a third party. Extending street‐level bureaucracy theory, we examine the role of service providers who function as street‐level bureaucrats in shaping how religious groups respond to public policy mandates. Using the case of funeral rites in Old Order Amish churches, we content‐analyzed Old Order Amish obituaries from an Amish correspondence newspaper and interviewed funeral directors that serve the Amish. We found that the content of obituaries changed to incorporate COVID‐19 mitigation strategies due to requirements from some funeral homes. We also found that funeral directors used discretion to interpret health mandates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines frontline educators as street-level bureaucrats and their pedagogical philosophies, approaches, and choices—what we are calling "street-level pedagogy" to prepare current and future public servants and nonprofit leaders. This provides crucial insight into how (or if) social equity is incorporated into syllabi through a critical reflection on what materials and perspectives are assigned and how they are communicated. Our findings show that gender diversity is more visible, largely through authors of assigned readings, but that visibility is dependent upon presentation method (i.e., citation style). The gender of the professor is linked to gendered patterns in selection of authors of assigned readings. Other types of diversity and intersectionality were visible in course topics and readings, which are discussed along with implications for communicating social equity in graduate nonprofit curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to explore the policy implementation process regarding 2023 Education Vision, a national-based top-down policy document, in the context of Istanbul through the lived experiences of 10 local-level administrators as street-level bureaucrats. This study adopted a qualitative research approach, incorporating phenomenology as the research design. The participants of the study were determined in accordance with criterion sampling. The data was gathered via semi-structured interviews. The researchers used content analysis to analyse the data. In the analysis, researchers reached three themes, which are reflections from the field, priorities, and barriers. Firstly, the findings unveil the contentious perspectives adopted from a great variety of education stakeholders regarding the implementation of this policy document. Secondly, the views of street-level bureaucrats reveal that some areas in the relevant policy document are much more highly prioritized than others and that these priorities are embodied in practice in a variety of ways. Finally, the findings draw attention to the hindrances street-level bureaucrats face regarding the implementation of this policy document. Also, it can be suggested that designing hybrid educational policies in both top-down and bottom-up ways is fundamental for efficiency in street-level policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unintended effects of curtailing performance regimes are well-documented. Less is known about how street-level workers are enabled by hybrid performance regimes having a control and learning function. The aim of this study was therefore to conceptualize enablement by such performance regimes. For this purpose, an empirical study was conducted in two frontline contexts characterized by hybrid performance regimes: hospital nursing and prison guarding. Drawing on 31 interviews, 35 informal conversations, and 58 observation hours, this research finds that performance measuring enables street-level workers by providing them with different forms of knowledge helping them in different aspects of the job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The police require legitimacy in order to function. It is argued that this legitimacy can be attained through procedural justice; that is, fairness. An ethnographic study of street-level policing was undertaken to explore this idea. From this study issues embedded in policing emerged (discretion, threat, and cynicism). Broader issues also emerged. For example, officers function as street-level bureaucrats. However, officers suffer from extreme stress and suicide. Also, officers feel they handle society's "dirty work." In employing procedural justice, officers do not usually impose their will on citizens. Rather, they negotiate an acceptable outcome in most situations. However, outside influences impinge on the police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an intrinsic feature of many public agencies that they are dependent on street-level bureaucrats making important decisions regarding their clients. While some have claimed that such decisions are in danger of being corrupted by the bureaucrats’ discretionary powers, Lipsky argued that this discretion was necessary for the proper implication of social policy. However, the digitalization of government has altered the way in which many public servants reach their decisions. For instance, Bovens and Zouridis have argued that digitalization limits or removes bureaucrats’ processional discretion when making decisions, which can have a negative effect on public services. While decisions are singular events, the process of reaching them is complex and drawn out over time. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the process of decision-making in a public service context, and how digitalization has impacted caseworker discretion. The context of this study is the Norwegian child welfare service, where we have conducted focus group interviews with 26 caseworkers. Our analyses of the decision-making process uncovered several points in which digitalization has increased the need for caseworker discretion, i.e., an increased availability of caseworkers, information gathering and the admissibility of private information online. Our study demonstrates how even though digital technology such as social media presents new opportunities for information gathering, it also poses a danger for the creation of discriminatory practices toward citizens that could negatively affect the quality of service provision. Furthermore, conceptually deconstructing the decision-making process was beneficial to understanding how digitalization impacts different aspects of the case-handling process.

Urban agriculture (UA) is increasingly recognized in policy and academic discussions for its potential to promote sustainable food systems and reduce food insecurity. Due to their proximity to citizens, local governments are well-positioned to advance these initiatives. However, the factors that drive governments in densely populated cities to develop UA policies remain relatively understudied, especially in the Global South. To address this gap, we employ a comparative case study approach based on key informant interviews and documents to examine how local government actors pursue UA policies in the Brazilian cities of Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and Curitiba. We find that certain municipal bureaucrats act as “policy entrepreneurs,” emerging as pivotal figures in creating, maintaining, and adapting municipal UA policies in Brazilian cities. These policy entrepreneurs use a number of strategies to advance their policy preferences, secure resources, and legitimize their actions within the public administration. These approaches include collaborating with civil society, forging partnerships within and outside of government, framing their proposals within international policy guidelines, and leveraging media coverage and external recognition. In doing so, policy entrepreneurs shape UA policies by introducing new programs, making them resilient to changes related to electoral turnover, and diversifying initiatives from direct government support for gardeners to, for example, incorporating UA into urban planning regulations. This article thus provides valuable insights for policymakers and underscores the crucial role of local government bureaucrats, particularly those acting as policy entrepreneurs, in shaping policies that contribute to making cities sustainable.

This article develops 'street-level bureaucracy' theory to conceptualise how policy implementation within urban design governance is shared among actors whose role transcends sectoral responsibilities and motivations. It presents case study research with a Scottish local authority which has made a strategic investment in a placemaking policy agenda, including the creation of an influential design review panel of volunteer experts which exemplifies the wider embrace of private capacity within public governance. The paper identifies the distinctive role of design review panel members in street-level implementation, and shows how their discretion is shaped simultaneously by public and private interests. It concludes that understanding and utilising these micro-level processes provides opportunities for conceptualising policy implementation within a neoliberalising urban governance context, and for addressing the implementation gap between the aims of public urban design policy and the realities of delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract\nPLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARYThis paper aims to explore what has caused nurses to engage in organizational learning since Covid-19. The empirical sample comprises 27 semi-structured interviews with nurses working full-time in public hospitals in the context of the developing economy of Egypt. Thematic analysis was subsequently used to determine the main ideas in the transcripts. The findings include the following three categories of factors: individual (discretionary power, ensuring care to large numbers of patients), contextual (absence of stakeholder pressure, poor funding and resources, lack of communication) and job-related factors (long working hours and demanding duties, low status of nurses) that determine the engagement of nurses in organizational learning. This paper contributes to the literature in public administration, human resources management, organizational learning and healthcare management as a pioneering study specifically addressing organizational learning among nurses before and after Covid-19 in a developing country (Egypt).This paper contributes to the global dialogue on learning for healthcare professionals post Covid-19. The present paper is part of a broader project exploring current challenges and meaningfulness, and future prospects for the nursing profession in non-Western countries post Covid-19. In the present paper, the author has identified the main determinants of engagement in organizational learning among nurses despite their extreme jobs. Having done that, this paper contributes to public administration, human resources management, organizational learning and healthcare management through addressing the importance of learning for nurses in public hospitals. Moreover, the current paper is one of few academic studies to use Florence Nightingale theory and street-level bureaucracy to understand the dynamics of organizational learning in a non-Western context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides and empirically tests an analytical model that considers the relationship between the discretionary power of street‐level bureaucrats (SLBs) and the institutional and organisational structures at meso and macro levels. The proposal maintains a bottom‐up perspective in the analysis of discretionary practices; at the same time, it highlights the relevance of multilevel governance systems as institutional spaces in opening and constraining the room for manoeuvre of SLBs. The analytical model is tested to comparatively analyse the implementation of the Italian guaranteed minimum income (Reddito di Cittadinanza) in two different regional welfare systems. The analysis focused on the practices and perceptions of the "navigators", a new professional group introduced to implement the same policy. The fieldwork pointed out different spaces for and forms of discretion, highlighting that different institutional arrangements affect discretion and the variability of practices; however individual and professional group factors coupled with similar external constraints nuanced this variability with the emergence of common ones. In this article, the analytical model allowed to consider in a comparative perspective how institutional factors, besides individual and professional ones, influence discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant amount of nonprofit work happens on the "frontlines"—interacting directly with clients and developing relationships with them in unpredictable and complex social service settings. As a result, frontline work tends to result in high degrees of burnout among staff, manifesting in emotional exhaustion and cynicism towards clients, as well as poor health for workers and ongoing turnover for organizations. How do frontline workers avoid burnout and attrition while doing effective work with clients? Informed by an inductive qualitative research study of frontline workers across 10 social service organizations, this policy brief first presents two approaches to frontline work that I witnessed, both of which have negative impacts on staff and clients. These approaches align with extant scholarship on street-level bureaucracy. I then present a third approach, drawing from a practice of compassionate accompaniment I observed in my research, and which avoids the commonplace negative outcomes. This approach aligns with literature from liberation theology, as well as abolitionist organizing, decolonizing approaches, and feminist theory. Inspired by the practice of compassionate accompaniment, I propose four policy suggestions involving novel processes of training, selecting, managing, and regulating frontline workers to reduce staff burnout and increase their effectiveness with clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Saúde e Sociedade is the property of Universidade de Sao Paulo, Faculdade de Saude Publica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years studies on Street-Level Bureaucracy (SLB) have increased in number and diversified their approaches. In 2011 Brodkin suggested extending the analysis to organizations, to also include those non-public actors who implement public policies and work frontline. The dimension of discretion has remained central, even if declined in a conflictual way between management and workers, and put to the test by new organizational practices, such as accountability and digitalization, and work practices, such as multi-professional teams. The main perspective on discretion, however, has been and continues to be subjective. In this paper we propose an analysis which instead considers discretion as a specific dimension, that finds its application at an organizational level. We have chosen an urban case study (Rome) and distinguished the sample organizations between public institutions, specifically Local Health Authorities (ASL) and Local Government Districts (social assistance branches of the City Municipality), and third sector institutions (cooperatives that manage the service after winning the bidding process) and administered a semi-structured questionnaire to 72 social workers. The main research hypothesis, confirmed by the results, is that discretion depends on the type of organization in which the worker is inserted: that is, discretion can be defined as organizational-led and not just predominantly subjective-led. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]