“In-betweeners”: The brokering work of frontline workers during the New Zealand mycoplasma bovis outbreak
研究新西兰牛支原体疫情中一线工作人员在农民与根除计划之间扮演的桥梁角色，分析他们如何通过知识、资源和关系的中介工作提升疫情应对效率。
This article explores the brokering work performed by frontline workers during the recent New Zealand Mycoplasma bovis biosecurity outbreak and the subsequent eradication programme. The parent programme of study utilised a qualitative research design within a pragmatic orientation, and the dataset supporting this article comprised a subset of individual and group interviews conducted with fifteen frontline workers. The analysis indicates that in the process of meeting their various operational briefs, frontline workers brokered knowledge and information, resources and materials, and relationships for the benefit of their clients. Their brokering work mitigated the limitations of the intervention’s infrastructure and also mitigated dysfunction among stakeholder organisations. The embeddedness of frontline workers within their local communities meant that they already had credibility that worked to the advantage of the eradication programme. Participant accounts support the existence of a boundary space on the frontline of the M. bovis invention that, despite an overarching common purpose, was characterised by instability, chaos, and flux. The position of frontline workers as being ‘in-between’ their clientele (farmers impacted by M. bovis ) and their employers conferred ambiguous status. Nevertheless, their accounts indicate that their brokering work improved the efficiency of the M. bovis eradication programme, and we suggest that organisations responsible for biosecurity can increase the effectiveness of future incursions by recognising, valuing, and supporting the brokering roles conducted by frontline workers. • Workers on the frontline of the New Zealand Mycoplasma bovis biosecurity incursion acted as brokers between farmers and the eradication programme. • Frontline workers brokered information and knowledge, resources and relationships, conflicts and institutional dysfunction. • Brokers can be perceived with ambiguity by those with whom they liaise. • Frontline workers can be better prepared and supported to act as brokers.