Street-level bureaucracy

Today I am having eight hours of seminars on Lipsky’s classic concept of “street-level bureaucracy” with my social work students. Half-way through the day, I think the first two groups have had quite good discussions on the ethics of public administration, especially in relation to migration and the growing social interest in “cultural difference”. Though I am obviously not the first to point this out, there is clearly something paradoxical about the fact that, as the world becomes more homogenous than ever, we become increasingly obsessed with the small differences that remain.