The power of bureaucracy, market and psychology in citizen–staff encounters

Abstract

This chapter presents excerpts from two of the author’s previous empirical studies on welfare encounters. The aim of presenting these empirical analyses is to illustrate how to study the power of particular contexts in the welfare encounter. By presenting these two empirical cases, the chapter shows how diagnoses and systems of categorisation reflect a larger environment (a concept by Hall, which here refers to bureaucratic principles, market values, NPM techniques and norms from the field of psychology) and produce particular behavioural expectations of both citizens and welfare workers. The first case shows how doctors (GPs and municipal medical consultants), caseworkers and citizens negotiate the diagnoses of stress and depression, and the second case (greatly inspired by Goffman’s work) shows how norms from the field of psychology and the bureaucracy affect the evaluation of whether or not a citizen is suited for early retirement benefits.