Street-level Bureaucrats and the Social Construction of Environmental Control

Abstract

This article explores the micropolitics of environmental regulation of industry through interviews with, and ethnographic observations of, regulatory inspectors. As street-level bureaucrats, inspectors are seen to cope with the legal and social ambiguities of their work mainly through negotiative forms of control — which are often idiosyncratic and partial. How inspectors construct local moral orders and standards, in interaction with industrial operators, is explored in some detail, especially the role of organizational ritual, symbols and emotional display as tools of control. The importance of understanding the processes of negotiated orders in the growing regulation of industry is discussed, as well as role of interpretive forms of research in such endeavours.