Recontextualizing street‐level bureaucracy in the developing world

Abstract

This Special Issue was driven by the need to better understand the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the growing mobilization of the streetlevel bureaucracy (SLB) analytical framework in the study of state action and policy implementation in the developing world. Our curiosity rested on what has been happening to the framework in terms of empirical applications as well as the consequent challenges to the theory when it travels from the Global North to the Global South. We wanted to learn more about the evolution of ideas and theoretical propositions developed on the basis of some important assumptions-such as consolidated liberal states and advanced democracies-when they reach the specific conditions and varying contexts of states and societies in the developing world.

“Don’t Tell Them What You Told Me”: Negotiating Paperwork in Mexico City

“…Her once acceptable official document had become invalid and delegitimized. More than a discretionary decision (Hupe, 2019;Lipsky, 2010;Lotta et al, 2022), the employee was implementing the recent guidelines, closing the gap between norms and practice that had existed for so long (Bierschenk, 2019;Vetters, 2019).…”

“Nobody wants to be a dead hero”: Coping with precarity at the frontlines of the Brazilian and Mexican pandemic response

“…Second, large social inequality is tied up with patchy social protection systems and social groups surviving in the informal economy (Holland, 2017). It is well‐known that street‐level discretion may reinforce existing social inequalities (Brodkin, 2012; Lotta et al., 2022). Conversely, inequality can also make frontline work more challenging (Lotta & Pires, 2019) by having to provide services or support to marginalized citizens that have less human and administrative capital (Christensen et al., 2020; Döring, 2021; Masood & Nisar, 2020).…”

“…Second, both countries figure among the worst‐hit countries by the COVID‐19 pandemic (Lowy Institute, 2021). Third, scholars in both countries have documented how frontline workers have been largely neglected by policymakers and exposed to many types of risks (Lotta et al., 2022; Meza et al., 2021; Perez‐Chiqués et al., 2021).…”

Cops, teachers, and counselors, stories from the front lines of public service – 2nd edition, new and expanded. By StevenMaynard‐Moody, MichaelMusheno, The University of Michigan Press. 2022. pp. 280. Paperback (U$29,95) and hardcover (U$80)

“…Lastly, considering implications for future research, one must take into consideration the growing mobilization of theories about street-level bureaucracy and frontline workers in the study of governments and public policies in the developing world. As argued elsewhere (Lotta, Pires, Hill, & Møller, 2022), the theory's journey from the Global North to the Global South requires attentive efforts of recontextualization. The theory has been developed on the basis of important assumptions, for example, consolidated liberal states, advanced democracies, and relatively high levels of social trust, which do not often hold in developing world societies.…”