Abstract
How is policy implementation affected by increased polarisation and extreme shifts in politics? In order to address this question, the paper focuses on frontline workers' (street-level bureaucrats') interpretations of political shifts and how these are then translated into practice. Building on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among social workers in Northeast Brazil, the paper proposes a theoretical framework for analysing the influence of political landscapes on policy implementation by foregrounding the political processes in which these agents play a critical role. Drawing on empirical data, the paper proposes ideal types of possible outcomes of translation practices - counterbalance, collaboration, resistance - that function as a guiding framework for future research.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 303-316 |
| Journal | International Journal of Law in Context |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2022 |
Funding
For their critical comments on previous versions of this paper, I am grateful to Martijn Koster, Janne Heederik, Adam Moore, Lieke van der Veer and Anick Vollebergh. The paper also benefited from discussions at Virginia Tech (I thank Aaron Ansell for the invitation), AAA/CASCA 2019 and EASA 2020, where the fruitful exchanges with the editors of this Special Issue began; thank you for the thorough revisions, Annalena Kolloch and Sophie Andreetta. This research and preparation of the paper received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 679614) and from The Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) of the University of Groningen.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme | 679614 |
| Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture | |
| ICOG | |
| European Research Council | |
| Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |