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Edri-Peer and Cohen (2025) identify “moving with” citizens as a distinct strategy for street-level bureaucrats to cope with authority, procedures, time pressure, and citizen demands. Based on direct observations and semi-structured interviews with justice professionals and citizens in two Belgian judicial settings – probation services and proximity courts – we show that frontline officers may “move with” citizens who display voluntarism or vulnerability. We refine a sequence – trusting, listening, and engaging – through which “moving with” emerges. Mutual trust is built when agents value relational support and communication, while citizens show basic procedural understanding and willingness to engage. Active listening enables shared sense making, distinguishing constraints from negotiable elements, and supports conditional empowerment that reframes, rather than undermines, judicial authority. Finally, “moving with” is facilitated by settings which foster a citizen-agent narrative. We draw some theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
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Schiffino-Leclercq, N., Ricotta, A., Lequeux, I., Moyson, S., & et al. (2026, May 28). “Moving With Citizens”: Trusting, Listening, Engaging. ISPOLE Research Day, Mons. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/276203