Digital tools are quietly shrinking the power of frontline workers to help
A new study reveals that as governments digitalize public services, street-level bureaucrats—the caseworkers and administrators who directly help citizens—are losing discretion to bend rules and adapt to individual circumstances. The finding matters because it suggests digital systems designed for efficiency may be creating invisible barriers that harm the most vulnerable people who need help navigating the digital economy.
Originaltitel: Please Handle with Discretion: Discretionary boundaries of street-level bureaucrats working for digital inclusion
<p>During rapid changes in the digital era, there is a need to understand changes at the micro level, close to the citizen, where policy is enacted, reiterated and, sometimes, subtly changed. By studying how street-level bureaucrats support clients in need of help to be digitally active, this thesis contributes to the understanding of two interlinked concepts. Firstly, it compares street-level discretion in different digitalising micro-institutional settings and analyses how street-level discretionary boundaries evolve when digitalisation adds layers to already restricting frames and circumstances. Secondly, it sheds light on the constraining aspects of these boundaries and explores the concept ‘digital cage’ related to street-level discretion. This concept builds on Weber’s ‘iron cage’ and refers to excluding digital infrastructure that, among other things, could limit street-level discretion.</p><p>The thesis uses a bottom-up approach based on the bureaucrats’ daily experiences. Street-level bureaucrats’ descriptions of their changing discretionary boundaries are analysed using micro-institutional theory with a special focus on street-level bureaucracy theory. It is a compilation thesis based on a cover paper and four research papers that focus on street-level bureaucracy in different settings, such as schools, libraries, social services, adult education and employment units, cases of how Swedish street-level bureaucrats view and handle their discretion when they work for digital inclusion of clients. The research process is based on qualitative and abductive studies. The data collection consists of interviews, survey answers and documents from different increasingly digitalised settings within Swedish local bureaucracy.</p><p>The overall conclusions show that the street-level bureaucrats experience significant changes in what they do and how they do it. They form new roles towards clients and adapt to new boundaries. Boundaries framing street-level discretion in the studied micro settings can be divided into boundaries related to policy and management, skill sets and access possibilities, perceptions of appropriateness in the eyes of others, and digital systems and tools. The analysis shows that new digital boundaries have a restricting, caging, effect. Since this digital cage constrains street-level discretion in new ways, there is a need to develop and further analyse competences and practices in micro-institutional settings. However, it should also be acknowledged that the caging effect, in combination with ambitious goals for digital inclusion, create frustration among the street-level bureaucrats since they feel pushed to work towards a level of digital inclusion that they deem impossible to attain.</p>