Can Street-Level Bureaucrats Assist with Material Resources? Naming, Trivializing and Privatizing Economic Abuse in Israel

ABSTRACT

Street Level Bureaucrats’ (SLBs) contribution to social inequality was proposed to be best assessed by combining three analytical approaches: Discretion, Positioning, and Reproduction. Such a triple analytical framework may be required for understanding SLBs’ responses to Economic Abuse (EA) in Israel where formal law has not addressed EA while the prevalent welfare orientation denies the material resources required in responding to EA. Applying the triple framework in analyzing fifty-three interviews conducted with Israeli SLBs operating in state welfare organizations reveals the extent to which each analytical component is open for SLBs’ moral entrepreneurship, generating a sense of appropriate professional treatment. It develops a critical discussion of the conditions under which applying the triple framework of discretion, positioning, and reproduction is conducive.

KEYWORDS:

• Economic abuse
• Social inequality
• Street level bureaucrats (SLBs)
• Resources
• Law and Policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Domestic Violence, for which each of the three organizations holds its specific protocol, was mentioned on the first phone call as the topic of the interview.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.

Notes on contributors

Arianne Renan Barzilay

Dr. Arianne Renan Barzilay from the Faculty of Law at Haifa University investigates the interrelationship between law and gender. She has published in the world's leading journals in the field of law and gender and her scholarly work on economic abuse in Israel was the basis for legislative initiatives.

Orly Benjamin

Prof. Orly Benjamin is currently serving as the President of the Israeli Sociological Society and the chair of the Israeli Association of feminist studies and gender research. She also serves as co-chair of the ESA section on gender relations in the labor market and welfare State.

Dalit Yassour-Borochowitz

Prof. Dalit Yassour-Borochowitz is the chair of the school of social work at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College. Her work concerns social stratification, women's working lives, and violence against women.

Karni Krigel

Dr. Karni Krigel works at the Unit for for the Study of Poverty and Society at Bar Ilan University, Department of Sociology.