Inside the digital state: frontline work in the context of digital layering
研究提出“数字分层”概念，通过丹麦两个机构的田野调查，揭示数字系统叠加如何导致前线工作复杂、碎片化且不稳定，员工采取补偿性实践和数字修复工作来维护专业与官僚价值。
Abstract Following decades of incremental digital development, public agencies today are permeated by a plethora of digital systems and tools. Transcending the dominant focus on individual technologies in the extant literature, this study introduces the concept of “digital layering” to capture the characteristics of this setting and develop a unique contextualized understanding of frontline work in the digital age. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in The Danish Agricultural Agency and the Danish Tax Agency, the study shows that digital layering creates a context for frontline work characterized by the experience of complexity, fragmentation, and instability or fragility of digital technologies, which deeply affects both backstage tasks and public encounters. In response, frontline workers employ a range of compensatory practices in the organizational backstage, including workarounds, temporal flexibility, and collaborative IT support, and take on new organizational roles as “digital janitors” and “digital liaisons” to fix errors and raise awareness of the consequences of higher-level decision-making on the ground. During public encounters, they avoid or take precautionary measures when using digital tools and engage in digital detective work on behalf of citizens. Conceptualized as “digital repair work,” these compensatory practices and roles are aimed at protecting professional and bureaucratic values such as efficiency, transparency, responsiveness, and trustworthiness. The study results in a novel theoretical framework to guide future inquiry into digital layering and its implications for (frontline) work and organizations, including employee well-being, the continued enactment of professional and bureaucratic values, and citizens’ trust in government.