Categorization of Clients in the Work of Street-Level Bureaucracy: “Next!”

Abstract

This article examines processes of client categorization in child protection departments. Drawing on the fieldwork conducted in 2019–2022 and the analysis of everyday work of child protection officials, it identifies the mechanisms of professional practice through which visitors are classified, as well as the parameters that shape this process. By “mechanisms of categorization”, I refer to stable modes of action employed by child protection officials and to recurrent patterns of interaction both with clients and among colleagues. By “parameters of categorization”, I refer to the characteristics of client interaction, including the duration of contact, the visitor’s socioeconomic status, and the performance of the “client role”. The article examines how cultural and social contexts shape professional practices of the officials and contribute to the formation of informal client categories. At the level of official discourse, these categories function as a means of building professional solidarity, legitimating action, and producing a locally shared understanding of “professionalism” within a particular work collective.