Knowing rights; state actors' stories of power, indentity and morality

Breaks new ground in interpreting how identity informs the judgements of state workers, as normative orientations coincide with indentities and authority. At all levels, legal ordering becomes entangled with moral orientations and the micropolitics of identification, as workers interact with one another and their clients. The result is neither law nor order, but a fragile cultural politics of workers acting on citizens as they act out their identities. Using case studies in the field, the book conducts an exploration of the state whilst holding on the strong notions of identity, power and normative orientation. It introduces a unique notion of 'rights' by arguing that workers assert identity and power as they make judgements about who gets what from the state.