Institutionalized strategies in face-to-face encounters: focus on immigrant clients

The aim of this article is to explore how officials' institutionalized patterns of acting can be useful for understanding encounters between immigrant clients and representatives of a welfare organization. The data indicate that there are two fundamental social mechanisms at work: the materialization of the organizational ideology, and the cultural filter. Both have an impact on the type of action strategy chosen by an official in handling client problems. An analysis of the strategy outcomes according to the social mechanisms shows that: 1) The outcome will depend on the client's consent to the organizational ideology. Immigrant clients more often than other clients are assumed to have different views on, for example, sickness, work capability and retirement age; 2) Comparing clients to the image of an ideal-typical long-term sick person can lead to the definition of clients with different cultural backgrounds or those of immigrant status as deviant, and therefore problematic to deal with; 3) The cultural filter through which the officials interpret their clients' situation can be an important obstacle in understanding the responses of immigrant clients.
The study was conducted at a local social insurance office in a suburban area of a major Swedish city. Immigrants represented approximately 60% of the long-term sick people. The empirical material consists of observations of encounters and interviews with the officials working with rehabilitation of the long-term sick.     

Frontline implementation of welfare conditionality in Norway: A maternalistic practice

Welfare conditionality is both ambitious and ambiguous for the frontline workers who put policy into practice. Since January 2017, the Norwegian frontline service should require social assistance benefit recipients under the age of 30 to participate in some sort of work-related activation, so-called mandatory activation. Drawing on qualitative interviews with frontline workers at local offices in the Norwegian Public Welfare Service (NAV), we investigate how the requirement is implemented in a context of a professionalised social welfare service. Mandatory activation is arguably a paternalistic measure. Drawing on Bernardo Zacka's concept of moral dispositions and Laura Specker Sullivan's concepts of maternalism, our findings indicate that at the frontline, mandatory activation policies are implemented by maternalistic decision making, emphasising the interpersonal relation between trained caseworkers and clients. The caseworkers use their discretionary powers in the implementation of conditionality and sanctions by emphasising care and support as embedded in the strict rules.     

Access to social services as a rite of integration: Power,rights, and identity

Access to social services is a multifaceted and multifactorial process, involving social policy lines, services organization, and professional front line practices. It appears to have a crucial role in how personal social services work: depending on the way the process is handled, access to social services could provide a bridge to an inclusive and solidarizing community or worsen discrimination and marginalization. Many underline how studying the actual encounters between citizens and practitioners can provide a privileged site to highlight the interconnections between the abovementioned factors. This is the focus of our research that explored access in a specific Italian region using a case study strategy. After a pilot study, the main points of access to social services were identified, and three units were selected as best examples of different approaches. The three units were explored using mainly qualitative methods inspired by ethnography. We were able to gain in depth understanding of three cultural approaches to access, defined as the “ethical duty,” the “good organization,” and the “professional approach” and reach an in‐depth understanding of their impact on access. There is a vast literature on the power of street‐level bureaucrats, seen as similar to gatekeepers. However, our research suggests that specific organizational cultures also play an important part: different organizational cultures may impact the implementation of local social policy, the organizational procedures, and social workers' practices.     

福佬人论略(上)

在我国汉族南方诸族群中的“福佬人”,其“福佬”的名称系由历史上的“福建夷獠”转化而来。六朝永嘉之乱、侯景丧乱,使大批中原难民辗转流入福建和广东东北部地区,开了蛮汉交流的先河;唐初闽南粤东地区发生的“陈元光平蛮”,促进了福佬先民的酝酿;隋唐时期泉州“市井十洲人”的出现,及由泉州土著与中原江淮移民两种语言融汇而成的泉州方言的基本形成,则意识着福佬族群已基本孕育成熟。     

Working with Stories: Street-Level Bureaucrats and Their Work with Individuals with Psychiatric Disability Exposed to Interpersonal Violence

ABSTRACT

The focus of our attention is the meeting between street-level bureaucrats and individuals with psychiatric disability exposed to interpersonal violence. Based on 11 interviews, we illustrate how stories are understood, used, and made meaningful to the street-level bureaucrat. The contribution of this article is first of all that of being a framework, from a storytelling point of view, for the work and organizational experiences of street-level bureaucrats. Second, by paying attention to the story part of these relationships, we can better understand the situation of individuals with psychiatric disability exposed to interpersonal violence given their interaction with different street-level bureaucrats.     

Authenticity or skill-oriented individualism,neutrality or managerialism: diversity officers as modern public officials

ABSTRACT

Diversity has become a new buzzword in European cities. Newly introduced diversity policies have replaced previous multicultural policies with an approach that acknowledges difference in a more general sense. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in diversity departments in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Leeds, this article investigates how the introduction of diversity policy impacted on the recruitment and the self-representations of public officials in newly created diversity departments. Despite a proclaimed move away from recognising minority-group specificities, many officials conceive their immigrant origin as a central element of their profiles. This continuation of a multicultural logic is interpreted as misunderstanding or resistance on the part of those meant to implement these policies, indicating agency of contemporary bureaucrats as well as creative space within bureaucracies. In order to place the shift from multicultural to diversity policy in the context of welfare state transformation and neoliberalism, I assess whether diversity officers endorse diversity policies in conjunction with New Public Management policies. However, I do not find an unequivocal promotion of both policies and my study thus does not confirm the common association of diversity policies with neoliberalism.     

官僚制的价值与限度——兼论我国公共行政的模式选择

官僚制作为一种理性的和有效的管理体制,既迎合了资本主义的发展需要,也适应了工业社会的时代要求。可以说,官僚制本身有其合理性部分。但工业时代发展起来的官僚体制本身也存在着某些不可规避的缺陷,而且与当今西方后工业社会的全新要求相左。基于此,我国行政改革的总体思路,应是在进一步强化现代官僚制的理性精神和法理权威的基础上,结合我国的行政实践,不断对官僚制进行扬弃和完善。     

论新公共管理在我国的适用

20世纪70年代末80年代初首先启端于英美国家的新公共管理已经成为概括西方公共管理最新发展趋势的一个学术概念,并且在理论上和实践上得到了迅速发展。但是,新公共管理理论或者称之为新公共管理改革基本上都发生在英、美、澳、新西兰等盎格鲁—撒克逊体系的国家。本文试图从法学的角度找出其原因。英美法系和大陆法系之划分是法学中公认的法律分类法;而新公共管理中的核心思想是利用私法契约来提供公共服务。本文通过对两大法系和契约制度的分析,认为作为大陆法系的我国基于政治法律传统应该选择法治国家模式进行政府管理改革。     

In search of the glass ceiling: gender and recruitment to management in Norway's state bureaucracy1

There are still fewer female than male managers in Norway's state bureaucracy. This article asks if there are organizational barriers which prevent women from entering these positions. Is there really a glass ceiling, or must one look outside the organizational environment to find an explanation? Is it rather the case that the scarcity of female managers is caused by women's own preferences or their life situations outside work? Or do both contribute to the situation? The study shows that female managers are treated just as well as male managers in central parts of the state bureaucracy. Employers give equal shares of respect and attention to both genders. Female managers are encouraged to apply for the same number of jobs as men and are offered an equal number of jobs as men when they apply; in fact, women are offered more jobs than men, when one controls for the number of job applications. This indicates that organizational barriers are not the problem. The study also shows that there are no differences in work orientation between male and female managers. Female managers are just as ambitious as male managers. Nor do female managers find it more difficult than male managers to combine work and family life. So, how can one explain the low number of female managers? The study shows that one reason can be that female managers apply for management jobs less often than their male colleagues. The cause of this seems to be anticipated discrimination rather than lack of ambition or self‐confidence. However, this slows down women's movement into higher management positions in the state bureaucracy.     

From Bureaucratic Administration to Network Administration? An Empirical Study on E-Government Focus on Catalonia

This article aims to (1) analyse the extent to which there is a movement from a Weberian bureaucratic administration towards a new organisational model that we call network-administration and (2) consider whether the premises of New Public Management (NPM) theory are present in this process of transformation. The study centres on the analysis of the channels for citizen attention and the processes of technological innovation around these channels carried out by the Catalonian Government. Our initial conclusions indicate that while there is a change in Public Administration (PA), this change is incremental and has several nuances: a slight evolution towards network-administration is observed as currently existing alongside the traditional hierarchical and compartmentalised bureaucracy. In parallel, the private sector is increasingly involved in a relationship that tends to be more controlled by the public sector. We should add that there is also a new emphasis being placed on the relationship with the citizen as a service-user.