China’s Unhappy Police

Asian Survey ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne E. Scoggins ◽  
Kevin J. O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Front Line ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Line Officers ◽  
Low Pay

Facing heavy caseloads, administrative drudgery, and low pay, China’s street-level police are frustrated. Front-line officers from six cities report that discontent encourages shirking, corruption, and waste. Grievances and feelings of powerlessness have not been reduced by recent reforms, and give us cause to rethink the image of police as effective arms of a highly securitized state.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 210-218
Author(s):  
Ana Aliverti
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
State Power ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Northern State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Line Officers

The Conclusion reflects on the key contributions of the book, revisiting some of the concepts and arguments presented in the Introduction. The section concludes by posing a number of questions on the implications of the findings presented for the academic field of policing and, more importantly, for social justice and democratic governance. I argue that migration policing is a privileged entry point to understanding the relationship between policing and society in a globalized, postcolonial world. The policing of immigration subverts—or rather unveils—the veneer of legality in the work of maintaining order. By foregrounding the non-rational, magic-like operation of state power, the book intended to unsettle rigid received epistemologies to theorizing policing in northern state bureaucracies. Ultimately, the morally and politically contested domain where front-line officers operate, the fragility, contingency, and provisionality of their authority, the fortuitous, capricious, and arbitrary nature of their decisions, the futility of the violence and harms they exert and the pains they endure, reveal also a frail, impotent, and inchoate state seeking to assert itself amid a fluid, murky, interconnected, and polarized world. The impetus to reassert the national by enforcing a bordered order reveals the exclusionary foundations of social democratic institutions and poses serious questions about the viability of these institutions and the modern nation-state to foster social justice. Equally, this juncture is an opportunity to think anew our political and economic institutions, take stock of global interdependence and its implications for livelihoods, and foster new forms of human conviviality.

Revisiting Lipsky: Front-Line Work in UK Local Governance

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 978-995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Durose
Keyword(s):  
Local Governance ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Interpretive Analysis ◽  
Everyday Work ◽  
Front Line Workers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Line Work ◽  
Traditional Structures ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

Lipsky's work on ‘street-level bureaucracy’ drew attention to the significant contribution to policy making made by front-line workers. This article revisits Lipsky's seminal analysis to explore whether contemporary front-line work in local governance presents a challenge to the ‘street-level bureaucrat’ characterisation. Since Lipsky's analysis, local government has been the subject of extensive reforms which have eroded traditional structures. In order to make local governance work, front-line workers need to be entrepreneurial to innovate and work the emergent spaces of local governance. This research uses an interpretive analysis to explore how front-line workers understand and relate their everyday work through storytelling. Front-line workers articulate a series of strategies which they employ to enable them to build relationships with the community. The article concludes that the emergent spaces at the periphery of local governance require front-line work that is less like ‘street-level bureaucracy’ and more like ‘civic entrepreneurship’.

scholarly journals Public agents of front line: the creator of administrative law

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Bonacorsi de Palma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Action ◽  
Street Level ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

<span>Abstract: The role of the front-line public agents in the implementation of the public policies created by the first-tier is the subject addressed by the author. From the notion of street-level bureaucrats, it seeks to identify the difficulties encountered by such public agents in decision-making and the need for standards that provide for institutes and administrative dynamics that in fact lead to more efficient, impersonal and guaranteeing public action to protect the well-intentioned front-line public agent to fully exercise the discretion he needs in case-by-case action.</span>

scholarly journals Care transitions as street-level work

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Foster ◽  
Desley Harvey ◽  
Rachel Quigley ◽  
Edward Strivens
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Care Transitions ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Local Setting ◽  
Front Line Workers

Purpose Quality care transitions of older people across acute, sub-acute and primary care are critical to safety and cost, which is the reason interventions to improve practice are a priority. Yet, given the complexity of providers and services involved it is often difficult to know the types of tensions that arise in day-to-day transition work or how front-line workers will respond. To that end, this innovative study differs from the largely descriptive studies by conceptualising care transitions as street-level work in order to capture how transition practice takes shape within the complexities and dynamics of the local setting. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 23 hospital health professionals and community service providers across primary, sub-acute and acute care through focus groups. A thematic analysis and interrogation of themes using street-level concepts derived three key themes. Findings The themes of risk logics and dilemmas of fragmentation make explicit both the local constraints and opportunities of care transitions and how these intersect to engender a particular logic of practice. By revealing the various discretionary tactics adopted by front-line providers, the third theme simultaneously highlights how discretionary spaces might represent both possibilities and problematics for balancing organisational and patient needs. Originality/value The study contributes to the knowledge of street-level work in health settings and specifically, the nature of transition work. Importantly, it benefits policy and practice by uncovering mechanisms that could facilitate and impede quality transitions in discrete settings.

Dealing with disgust: Street-level bureaucrats as agents of Kafkaesque bureaucracy

Organization ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 882-899
Author(s):  
Muhammad Azfar Nisar ◽  
Ayesha Masood
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Social Organizational ◽  
Bureaucratic Behavior

Bureaucracy is deeply implicated in the biopolitical regimes that create and render invisible social waste—individuals classified as abnormal, deviant, or useless—in contemporary societies. According to previous theorists, bureaucracy is able to carry out this critical task through moral distance and reliance on technical efficiency. By specifically focusing on street-level bureaucrats, a unique tier of bureaucracy which is often afforded neither moral distance nor clear directions, this article explains the microprocesses of classification, managing and recycling through which social waste management is carried out in contemporary society. In doing so, this article highlights that in addition to official policies, informal factors like social, organizational, and group norms are critical determinants of bureaucratic behavior in front-line organizations and problematize some of the key assumptions of Weberian bureaucracy. Unlike functional interpretations, we argue that, in some instances, the informal factors influencing street-level bureaucrats are more regressive than official public policies and help explain some of the dystopian features of contemporary bureaucracy and its impact on social inequity.

scholarly journals Performance-based policy in offender rehabilitation: Limitation or innovation for front-line workers in Liaison and Diversion services?

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-213
Author(s):  
Paulo Rocha ◽  
Ann-Karin Holmen
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Front Line Workers ◽  
The Impact

In recent years, the English government has been using competitive elements in the process of allocating public funds through policy. Front-line workers struggle with the limitations imposed by such a model. A qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the impact of a new performance-based policy on front-line workers of a public service called Liaison and Diversion. The findings demonstrated that professionals have been adapting the policy to local circumstances found at the street level. We argued that adaptation is a form of employee-based innovation that optimises the use of scarce resources and customises services to the clients.

Offender interviews: implications for intelligence-led policing

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Summers ◽  
D. Kim Rossmo
Keyword(s):  
Front Line ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Actions ◽  
Police Patrol ◽  
Interview Research ◽  
Chronic Offenders ◽  
Line Officers ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeIntelligence-led policing (ILP) involves the analysis of data to inform the development and implementation of strategic actions aimed at more efficiently reducing crime. The purpose of this paper is to examine how chronic acquisitive offenders – a focus of ILP – respond to police patrol, and how this knowledge can be turned into actionable strategies to reduce crime.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were conducted with 137 chronic offenders who had multiple convictions for burglary, robbery and/or vehicle crime. The interviews involved the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, including responses to situational crime vignettes.FindingsWhen encountering police patrols, criminals were initially more likely to displace (e.g. committing crime elsewhere and/or later in the day) than to desist from offending. Some of the conditions under which police patrol was most effective were identified, including offenders’ fear of being recognized by officers. Repeated thwarted crime attempts appeared to be most impactful, with even the most chronic offenders becoming “worn down.”Practical implicationsThe profiles of top offenders should be systematically disseminated to front line officers to augment the effectiveness of police patrol and minimize the possibility of crime displacement.Originality/valueOffender interviews are a valuable source of information but they have been underutilized within an ILP framework. This research illustrates how offender interview research can inform and support the role of police in preventing crime.

scholarly journals ‘I mean, obviously you're using your discretion’: Nurses Use of Discretion in Policy Implementation

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Hoyle
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Nursing Staff ◽  
Significant Feature ◽  
City Hospital ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Exploratory Case Study ◽  
Street Level

This article explores the application of Lipsky's (1980) notion of street-level bureaucracy for nursing staff. This article aims to demonstrate the importance of discretion within the day-to-day work of front-line nursing staff, which is similar to that of other public-sector workers. The findings are from an exploratory case study based within a Scottish inner-city hospital. It specifically focuses on how nurses can be seen to be street-level bureaucrats and how front-line nursing staff interpret policy. Discretion can be seen to be a significant feature within the front-line practice of nursing staff and this may have implications for the implementation of health policy.

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