Rules shape workers’ self-conceptions more than they bind their behavior.

Evidence

From the point of view of reducing role tensions it is less important that rules are not necessarily followed than that they are available as authoritative materials with which street-level bureaucrats can renovate job conceptions to better fit work realities. Thus rules not only order work but also function to order workers’ role conceptions. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1100

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Inverts the usual assumption that rules govern practice — here rules govern how workers conceive of their practice, regardless of compliance.
• XREF: Connects to theories of institutionalization in which symbols of procedure do cognitive work independent of enactment. — connects to: Scripted labor produces a distinct theory of selfhood for workers. — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 3268; Class antagonism has moved inside the worker’s own psychology — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 74; Scripted retail labor produces a distinct theory of selfhood — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 1202 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Scripted labor produces a distinct theory of selfhood for workers. #expands (0.95) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 3268
• Scripted retail labor produces a distinct theory of selfhood #expands (0.95) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 1202
• Class antagonism has moved inside the worker’s own psychology #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 74
• Economic institutions perpetuate themselves through reproducing workers’ consciousness #expands (0.85) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 1130