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Acknowledgments The place was different but the moment was the same: for Michael it occurred in a police patrol car; for Steven it was in the meeting room of a vocational rehabilitation of‹ce. The moment was when each of us collected our ‹rst story, and we knew we were hearing and, in our mind’s eyes, seeing governing at the front lines. We were entering the world of street-level work, a world of tensions, ambiguity, and dif‹cult—often painful—choices and judgments. At these moments we were not sure what these ‹rst stories and the many stories that followed would tell us or if they would ‹t into a larger narrative. Long before these ‹rst stories had been collected, we had formed a research team and worked out the details of selecting sites and storytellers and developed interview and story-collection protocols. The original research project had a third principal investigator, Marisa Kelly, associate professor of political science at the University of the Paci‹c. Marisa had to pull out of the research, but her insights helped form the foundation of this project, and we remain in her intellectual debt. The research team also included two extraordinary assistants: Trish Oberweis at Arizona State University and now assistant professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and Suzanne Leland at the University of Kansas and now assistant professor of public administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Trish and Suzy put in the long hours and attention to detail so essential in ‹eld research, but more than labor they contributed ideas and insights. They were more our colleagues than our assistants, and we owe both of them more than we can acknowledge. These ‹rst stories were preceded by two years spent crafting a grant proposal for the Law and Social Science Program of the National Science Foundation, receiving encouraging reviews but no funding, and making revisions and eventually receiving funding. We gratefully acknowledge the NSF funding, without which this research would not have been possible. Before collecting our ‹rst stories, we had to secure permission from top of‹cials, supervisors, and the cops, teachers, and counselors themselves. We greatly appreciate all who opened the door to us and let us enter their worlds. They gave us their time and attention for what was an explicitly theoretical and academic research project. As we sat in the police car and voc rehab of‹ce collecting our ‹rst stories, we had, in front of us, two more years of ‹eldwork plus three years of trying to make sense of it all and ‹nding the words to express what we learned. But with so much yet to do, we felt it all coming together; we felt we were on to something, although at that time we had only the faintest clues about what that something was. This research project has been a wondrous intellectual adventure, and we thank all who made it possible. The Japanese have a worthy tradition of dedicating books to the authors’ teachers. We dedicate this book to our teachers, the storytellers . They let us into their work worlds and took the time to tell us their stories, stories that painted a multidimensional portrait of streetlevel work. They revealed the unseen positive and negative aspects of their views and actions. Like all great teachers, our storytellers posed great challenges to our theorizing. From our storytellers we learned— and have tried to capture in this book—a great deal that gives us con‹dence in the caring, good judgment, and responsible action of street-level workers. We also saw actions and heard judgments that raise concern. During discussion of the book manuscript in a graduate class, one student who worked in law enforcement commented, “You’re bipolar in your view of cops.” He was, of course, right. Many of the observations in this book may upset those convinced that society and governance depend on accountability and law abidance . Their concerns are real but so, we believe, are our observations about street-level judgment. Although we may not convince some readers of the possibility of responsibility without traditional accountability and of front-line policy action disjointed from policy implementation , we do ask these and all readers to listen closely and with open minds to the stories told by cops, teachers, and counselors. The storytellers have much to say, more than any analysis—ours included—can capture. The full text of all stories, interviews, and questionnaire data used in...

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