IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpxmxx/v27y2025i8p1938-1958.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Practicing knowledge-agency in highly vulnerable communities: the frontlines of Governance in delivering Brazilian Human services

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriela Lotta
  • Steven Maynard-Moody
  • Michael Musheno

Abstract

Knowledge-agency represents the skills and cognitive understandings that frontline workers acquire and practice in governing populations. Using an abductive approach, this paper explores how diverse expressions of knowledge shape frontline workers’ encounters with diverse people and places in stressful contexts. Analysing interviews with 98 frontline workers from four different policy domains serving the same communities in Brazil, we found three expressions of knowledge-agency: professional, socialized, and experiential. Our study provides a window into how frontline workers contextually mobilize their knowledge-agency when engaged in the everyday of governing citizens. We show that workers are both subjects and agents of knowledge practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriela Lotta & Steven Maynard-Moody & Michael Musheno, 2025. "Practicing knowledge-agency in highly vulnerable communities: the frontlines of Governance in delivering Brazilian Human services," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(8), pages 1938-1958, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpxmxx:v:27:y:2025:i:8:p:1938-1958
    DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2023.2288250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719037.2023.2288250
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14719037.2023.2288250?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpxmxx:v:27:y:2025:i:8:p:1938-1958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rpxm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.