Explaining bureaucratic bias requires the work setting, not workers’ social backgrounds

Evidence

This is not to say that biases toward clients do not intrude in street-level work. However, focusing on the social backgrounds or experiences of workers will not yield a persuasive theory of bias in street-level bureaucracy. Such a theory should account for the development and persistence of attitudes as well as their direction. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1046

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: ‘The bias isn’t in the bureaucrat, it’s in the desk’ — arguing structural over dispositional explanations of discrimination
• XREF: connects to: Street-level bureaucratic failures are rooted in work structure, not individual failings. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 55; Bias becomes institutionally invisible when it serves administrative function. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 847; Client prejudice in agencies is shaped more by work setting than by upbringing. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1044 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Frontline work structure, not worker prejudice, creates receptivity to stereotypes #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 844
• Work structure creates the need for bias while society supplies its content #qualifies (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1049