Confronting unemployment in a street-level bureaucracy: jobcentre staff and client perspectives
Confronting unemployment in a street-level bureaucracy: jobcentre staff and client perspectives
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面对街头官僚机构的失业问题：就业中心工作人员和客户的观点
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发表时间：
2003
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
S. Wright
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Wright
本文介绍了英国失业政策实施过程中社会行动者所扮演的角色。利普斯基（1980）的街头官僚制理论已被采纳，更新到管理国家的当代背景下（克拉克和纽曼，1997），并在就业中心的具体情况下发展。该分析是基于在苏格兰中部的一个案例研究就业中心办公室的人种学调查过程中收集的数据。这些方法包括六个月的直接观察、与就业中心48名工作人员的面谈、与35名用户的半结构化面谈以及对通知的空缺和指导文件的分析。他们的论点是，一线工作人员在执行政策的同时也在重新制定政策，他们这样做是对一系列影响、约束和激励的反应。因此，用户收到的服务是官方政策的修改版本。用户不一定接受他们所遵守的政策。他们不认同新的管理主义的客户服务概念，因为作为福利接受者，他们被剥夺了购买力、选择权和权力。失业政策不是统一或单方面执行的，因为一线工作人员积极培养影响政策结果的工作习惯。在实践中，政策是由工作人员通过将用户分类为客户类型来完成的。这一点很重要，因为工作人员在他们的互动中代表国家。用户也积极地完成政策，无论他们遵守，竞争，谈判或共同制作政策。要理解失业政策究竟是什么，以及它对人们意味着什么，取决于理解政策在实践中产生的这些社会过程。
This thesis presents an account of the roles played by social actors in the implementation of unemployment policy in the UK. Lipsky’s (1980) theory of street-level bureaucracy has been adopted, updated to the contemporary context of the managerial state (Clarke & Newman, 1997) and developed in the specific case of the Jobcentre. The analysis is based on data collected during an ethnographic investigation of one case study Jobcentre office in Central Scotland. The methods consisted of six months of direct observation, interviews with 48 members of Jobcentre staff, semi-structured interviews with 35 users and analysis of notified vacancies and guidance documents. The argument is that front-line workers re-create policy as they implement it. They do so in reaction to a series of influences, constraints and incentives. Users therefore receive a service that is a modified version of the official policy. Users do not necessarily accept the policy that they are subjected to. They do not identify with the new managerialist notion of customer service because as benefit recipients they are denied purchasing power, choice and power. Unemployment policy is not delivered uniformly or unilaterally because front-line staff are active in developing work habits that influence the outcomes of policy. Policy is accomplished by staff in practice by categorising users into client types. This is significant because staff represent the state to the citizen in their interaction. Users are also active in accomplishing policy, whether they conform with, contest, negotiate or coproduce policy. Understanding what unemployment policy actually is, and what it means to people, depends on understanding these social processes by which policy emerges in practice.