Producing a Vision of the Self-Governing Mother: A Study of Street-Level Bureaucrat Behavior in Coproductive Interactions

• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095399717719110
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399717719110

Administration & Society

2018, Vol. 50(8) 1148 –1174

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399717719110

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Article

Producing a Vision of

the Self-Governing

Mother: A Study of

Street-Level Bureaucrat

Behavior in Coproductive

Interactions

Laura C. Hand1

Abstract

Street-level bureaucrats in social welfare programs often interact with

program participants in coproductive environments where program

objectives cannot be achieved without participant behavior change. In

these environments, interactions are expected to help produce participant

outcomes, a process that has been underexamined. This study investigates

interactions and analyzes practices employed by street-level bureaucrats

to encourage behavior change among program participants in two clinics

in Arizona’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants,

and Children (WIC). The findings suggest that communicative practices

related to encouraging self-efficacy and recognizing participant autonomy

produce a mutually understood vision of a self-governing mother who is

knowledgeable, disciplined, persistent, and a creative problem-solver.

Keywords

street-level bureaucrats, coproduction, WIC, interpretive research,

governance

1University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA

Corresponding Author:

Laura C. Hand, University of North Dakota, 293 Centennial Dr., Stop 8379, Grand Forks,

ND 58202-8379, USA.

Email: laura.hand@und.edu

719110AASXXX10.1177/0095399717719110Administration & SocietyHand

research-article2017

Hand 1149

Introduction

The relationship between the state and its citizens is an integral component of

public service delivery that has been a concern in the field for decades. In

Michael Lipsky’s (1980/2010) seminal work, much of the literature related to

public service delivery has focused on street-level bureaucrat behaviors,

especially behaviors employed to cope with complex rules, large caseloads,

scarce resources, and endless client demands. These coping behaviors have

generated concerns related to equity, efficiency, and accountability in public

service delivery (Brodkin, 2012; Ellis, 2011; Maynard-Moody & Musheno,

2003, 2012; Smith, 2003; Tummers, Bekkers, Vink, & Musheno, 2015).

Around the same time, Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues were developing

the concept of coproduction, contending that citizens are not just consumers

of public services, but often actively participate in their production as well

(Ostrom, Parks, Whitaker, & Percy, 1978; Parks et al., 1981). This literature

focuses on the client side of public service delivery and has been concerned

with defining coproduction, and investigating client motivations to partici-

pate in coproducing public services and the resultant outcomes.

However, there is a facet of public service delivery that has received less

attention: how street-level bureaucrats behave in coproductive environments.

A coproductive environment is one in which the street-level bureaucrat is

tasked with working with the client to coproduce a public good or service.

This type of environment is common in many social welfare programs, which

are designed to encourage individual behavior changes that meet policy or

program objectives. Client behavior change contributes to the production of

the public good or service (e.g., behavior changes related to health or employ-

ment) as well as to the success of the policy or program which could not

otherwise be achieved (Alford, 1998, 2009; Whitaker, 1980). Understanding

what these types of interactions look like, the practices that are used by street-

level bureaucrats and clients alike, and what is coproduced remains underex-

plored (Verschuere, Brandsen, & Pestoff, 2012).

This research investigates the practices employed by street-level bureau-

crats during interactions in a coproductive environment. The use of the term

“practices” here is deliberate, referring to “arrays of human activity” that are

“centrally organized around shared practical understanding” (Schatzki, 2001,

p. 2). In other words, actions are practical meaning in use, thus rendering it

observable and understandable (Collins, 2001). In public administration, the

activities of street-level bureaucrats are organized around dealing with soci-

etal problems through “practical judgments, the everyday, taken-for-granted

routines and practices, the explicit and tacit knowledge that is brought to bear

on concrete situations” (Wagenaar, 2004, p. 644). Attending to practices