Capturing the effects of context from the desk. A multilevel analysis of the discrimination process. This article examines several methodological challenges associated with the multilevel approach, starting from the choices made during a research project aimed at explaining the recurrence of discrimination in access to social housing. Based on ethnographic surveys mainly carried out at the micro and meso levels, this research adopts a dual focus on professional practices and contextual effects, in order to grasp reproduction processes at the macro level. How to differentiate the levels of analysis through ethnographic enquiry ? How can macro-level elements be extracted from data collected mainly at the micro or meso level? How to characterise the relationships between these different levels of analysis ? To answer these questions, I first propose a brief review of the literature on bureaucratic work and lay the foundations for a multi-level approach to street-level bureaucracy. I then review my main methodological choices, the trajectory of my investigation, and the techniques used to analyse the empirical material. Finally, I show, on the basis of the results of my survey, how the multilevel approach makes it possible to characterise the micro-meso-macro links in terms of coupling-decoupling and to prioritise the explanations of bureaucratic work.