How citizens encounter the democratic state weapons of the meek at the frontlines of public services John Boswell

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boswell, John (John Charles), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

County services--Public opinion.

County services.

Municipal services--Public opinion.

Municipal services.

Public administration--Public opinion.

Public administration.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford University Press, 2026.

Oxford Oxford University Press [2026]

Summary:

Despite innovation to address ailing trust and rising inequalities, democratic reformers ignore the most common way that disaffected citizens encounter the state: in the frontline implementation of laws, policies, and services. Dominant thinking about democracy seemingly writes off these encounters as technocratic and apolitical, implicitly presenting citizens as 'meek' targets of state action. But ethnographic studies across health, education, planning, policing, and beyond reveal subtle forms of agency on the frontlines, as citizens evade, accommodate, or outwit authorities. What do these forms of agency entail, and what are the wider impacts for participation in democratic life? This book takes up this challenge. The author explores subtle acts of navigation, negotiation, and defiance that citizens practice in their encounters with the state using the technique of meta-ethnography to shed light on everyday forms of frontline agency

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on April 1, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780198965220

0198965222

9780198965237

0198965230

OCLC:

1582491512

Publisher Number:

CIPO000374027

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license