Outnumbered. Quantification and Reactivity Inside Street-Level Organizations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kongsgaard, Leif Tofting
• 署名单位: Aalborg University
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352; 1540-6210
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.70034
• 发表日期: 2026-03
• 页码: 520-534
• 关键词: data ambiguity; employment service; measurements; performance management; quantification; reactivity; REFLEXIVITY; street-level bureaucracy; performance; management; Frontline; work

摘要

Over the past three decades, the amount of quantitative data in general and performance indicators specifically within street-level organizations has increased immensely. Although quantitative data is often perceived as information about and for practice, it must also be seen as part of practice itself. Through a bottom-up approach to numbers using ethnographic data from Danish public employment services targeting vulnerable clients, this article examines what happens when numbers are put on the table in street-level organizations, going beyond categories of gaming or perverse effects. This is done by introducing an empirically derived typology of reactions to numbers that includes three domains: emotions, attitudes, and actions. The research contributes to a better understanding of numbers' organizational lives and performance management systems seen from a street-level perspective.