LIST OF PANELS

Street-level organizations (SLOs) are central to the work of the state. In recent decades, street-level theory has generated new and varied research agendas and approaches to the study of public policy and politics. Following up on a successful panel at the first ICCP conference, we propose three sessions on street-level research and theory that will offer policy studies adopting diverse research approaches and contribute to identifying promising directions for the field. We particularly invite papers that present original policy research, offer new ways of conceptualizing and theorizing research, and/or address new research problems. The sessions focus on three, broad  topics. Policy politics in practice (Brodkin 1987). We propose to raise questions about the role of street-level organizations in welfare state politics. What does the study of street-level organizations bring to the study of power and politics? How do SLOs  mediate policy possibilities and political voice and how are they affected by governance and management reforms? The digital street level. This session examines the use of technologies and new media in fulfilling public tasks (cf. Buffat 2013). Empirically, little is known yet about the various ways through which new technologies are  experienced in street-level organizations and how are they are transforming street-level work. Street-level work in context. This session approaches street-level work in and across institutional contexts. In the relationships between factors enabling and constraining public task fulfilment public service gaps may be observed (cf. Hupe and Buffat 2014). Documenting and exploring these factors in varying contexts is the topic here.   These topics, while distinct, also overlap and inform one another, with the panels designed to promote conversation across themes. We welcome contributions from both junior and senior scholars reflecting diverse national political-administrative contexts, policy sectors, types of organizations, and international or comparative perspectives. Papers may be theoretically or empirically focused.

Street-level organizations (SLOs) are central to the work of the state. What happens in these organizations has become a major topic of interest in diverse types of research on management, sociology, politics, and public policy. This field of study has contributed to understanding the role of SLOs in the policymaking process and in determining  ‘who gets what, when and how’ (Lasswell 1936) from the state. In this sense, what SLOs do and how they do it, can be addressed as the ‘continuation of politics by other means.’ At the first ICCP-conference we organized a panel that expanded the disciplinary boundaries of street-level policy research. For the 2015 conference we propose to follow up with a three session panel that advances the field by presenting original policy and management research, new ways of conceptualizing and theorizing, and raising critical issues for the advancement of the field. We have organized our panel around three broad themes: Policy politics in practice (cf. Brodkin 1987). The analysis of street-level organizations is central to the study of the welfare state. We propose to examine what a street-level perspective brings to the study of power, politics, and policymaking, raising questions about how organizations mediate policy possibilities and political voice. We hope to explore how conflicts and tensions over politically-contested interests, agendas, and regimes take shape in street-level practices and how they are affected by projects of governance and management reform. Papers may be broadly conceptual or empirically-focused, examining specific policy issues in diverse national contexts. The digital street level. This session examines how new office technologies and media are influencing street-level work (cf. Buffat 2013). With the shift to e-government, street-level organizations tend to transform more and more into screen- or system-level bureaucracies (Bovens and Zouridis 2002), becoming ‘digital agencies,’ but little is known about how new technologies are experienced and dealt with in street-level organizations. How are they  transforming street-level work? How do new technologies affect discretion at the frontline? Street-level work in context. This session approaches street-level work in and across institutional contexts. Public tasks like delivering social security benefits by social workers, teaching pupils of elementary schools, or imposing fines by police officers for law breading, have an almost universal character. The same goes, more or less, for developments in governmental expenditures, whether or not accompanied by the ideology of New Public Management. These phenomena  can be expected to influence public task fulfilment at the street level, but the  ‘how’ will vary across institutional contexts. In the relationships between factors enabling and constraining public task fulfilment public service gaps may be observed (cf. Hupe and Buffat 2014). This session will consider those relationships and how similar tasks are fulfilled in varying contexts.      We invite papers that are theoretically or empirically focused, and welcome overlapping interests across the panels. We encourage contributions reflecting diverse national political-administrative contexts, policy sectors, and types of street-level organizations, as well as a strong international and potentially comparative orientation. Junior and senior scholars from Europe, the USA, and beyond, are invited to participate.