Call for Papers: Special Issue on COVID-19 in the JCPA

During this unexpected, intense and very peculiar time period of crisis, street-level bureaucrats (SLB), in many ways, are those who carry the treatment of the pandemic on their shoulders, while being exposed to risks. Therefore, the contribution of SLBs to dealing with the crisis, especially of health workers, social workers, police officers, and teachers, among other professionals further emphasizes the key, critical, and priceless role of SLBs in government functioning.

This special issue aims to facilitate a comparative outlook of the ways through which governments around the globe draw on SLBs as the front lines of addressing the pandemic. We welcome papers that contribute to our understanding of the new ascribed roles for SLBs and new constrains created for SLBs during crisis, as determined by the frameworks of states’ policies, both in terms of SLB as a profession and as individuals. The role of SLB will be explored with regards to central aspects of SLB work, that is, discretion, professionalism, action imperative and working in under-resourced environments. We also seek to examine less studied aspects such as exposure to risks and protection from risks and how the state perceives and acts on risks.

Because comparative research design is rather rare in street-level scholarship in general, we aim to allow a comprehensive and systematic comparison between the studies included in this Special Issue. Therefore, we propose to focus on the changes in the roles of SLB as a part of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Specifically, we suggest referring to the following questions:

Which new roles or modifications of current roles are being ascribed by the government to SLBs in order to face or fight against the crisis?

• How do these changes impact SLB discretion, activities, resources, and constrains as well as their professionalism?
• What do governments propose as strategies for SLB to deal with the crisis imposed risks?
• How has SLB been reacting to the new agendas?

Specifically, analysis will draw on the accumulating formal policy directives to explore the ways through which policy decisions that address the COVID-19 pandemic influence the work of SLBs, and how these directives are being changed during the crisis giving these workers new responsibilities requirements and demands, while providing (or not) support or creating constrains.

Authors are invited to submit papers analyzing any (one or more groups of) SLBs in any country, however with a preference for referring to SLBs that are significantly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Preference will be given to papers that meet the JCPA aims and detailed criteria in taking a comparative perspective see here for more details:

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=fcpa20

The timeline is rather short, but we hope you can see the publication benefits it extends.

Looking very much forward to hearing from you,

Gabriela & Anat