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Governing Street-Level Bureaucracies

The Organizational Shaping of Caseworkers

Kerstin Jacobsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) Håkan Johansson (Lund University, Sweden)

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Hardback

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English
Routledge
22 April 2025
This book examines how caseworkers are governed in today’s street-level bureaucracies. It redefines our understanding of public sector governance by highlighting the subtle, informal, and everyday forms of organizational governance that shape caseworkers’ subjectivities beyond formal policies and professional identities. Based on four distinct types of normative governance – ‘governance by discourse’, ‘governance by emotions’, ‘governance by peers’, and ‘governance by numbers, colours, and symbols’, the book shows how caseworkers are shaped as organizational staff members alongside their roles as welfare professionals and welfare state bureaucrats.

Governing Street-Level Bureaucracies will be of interest to scholars and students in organizational sociology, street-level bureaucracy research, public administration, and critical management studies. It also provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to understand caseworkers’ responses to public governance and public sector reforms.
By:   , ,
Imprint:   Routledge
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 156mm, 
Weight:   470g
ISBN:   9781032331942
ISBN 10:   1032331941
Series:   Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Work, Professions and Organisations
Pages:   156
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Kerstin Jacobsson is a Professor of sociology at the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She has published extensively on discourse and governance in the field of social and labour market policy, as well as on street-level bureaucracy. Håkan Johansson is a Professor of social work at the School of Social Work at Lund University, Sweden. He has published extensively on topics related to comparative social policy and activation reforms and their implementation in Nordic welfare states.

Reviews for Governing Street-Level Bureaucracies: The Organizational Shaping of Caseworkers

“Governing Street Level Bureaucracies provides a uniquely rich insight into the complex and dynamic realities of two major welfare bureaucracies. Using a multi-method approach and inspired by street-level bureaucracy and critical management theory and studies, the book offers an important contribution to our understanding of the work practices and their management in these welfare state institutions. I fully endorse the authors’ claim that the book’s relevance goes beyond the Swedish context in which the study took place.” Rik van Berkel, Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance, School of Governance (USG), Utrecht University


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