Building a category and applying it both are discretionary acts.

Evidence

Street-level bureaucracies define emergencies in two ways. They create the emergency categories, and they determine when clients or cases fit those categories. In creating the categories they assign priorities but also determine the reach and limits of their own flexibility. By determining which cases are emergencies they allocate bureaucratic resources with respect to formally relevant and nonrelevant attributes of the case. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1022

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Names the double discretion — category-creation and category-application — as the site where nonrelevant client attributes (e.g., who complains) enter formal resource allocation.
• SEED: Essay angle: how bureaucratic categories smuggle in the attributes they officially exclude, so discretion institutionalizes bias faster than any narrative shift.
• XREF: connects to: Category construction, boundary definition, and incorporation are power questions. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 120

Broader Connections

• Category construction, boundary definition, and incorporation are power questions. #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 120