Five Ways to Make a Difference: Perceptions of Practitioners Working in Urban Neighborhoods

Authors Catherine Durose, Annika Agger, Laurens de Graaf, Merlijn van Hulst, Oliver Escobar, Stephen Jeffares
Published in Public Administration Review
Publication date 2015
Research groups Decent Work
Type Article

Summary

Full text via link. This article responds to and develops the fragmented literature exploring intermediation in public administration and urban governance. It uses Q-methodology to provide a systematic comparative empirical analysis of practitioners who are perceived as making a difference in urban neighborhoods. Through this analysis, an original set of five profiles of practitioners—enduring, struggling, facilitating, organizing, and trailblazing—is identified and compared. This research challenges and advances the existing literature by emphasizing the multiplicity, complexity, and hybridity, rather than the singularity, of individuals perceived as making a difference, arguing that different practitioners make a difference in different ways. The authors set out a research agenda, overlooked in current theorization, that focuses on the relationships and transitions between the five profiles and the conditions that inform them, opening up new avenues for understanding and supporting practice.

Language English
Published in Public Administration Review
Year and volume 76 4
Page range 576-586

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