Labour Inspectors in Italy Between Discretion and Institutional Pressure

This book analyses labour inspectors’ discretionary practices in handling complex cases of labour exploitation in the Italian context. By outlining three years of field research, the volume uses the theoretical framework of street-level bureaucracy in the Italian context and integrates it with a neo-institutionalist perspective, focusing on the isomorphic pressures from the institutional field in which the labour inspectors operate. The book will be of use to advanced undergraduate students and scholars in the fields of sociology, organization studies, law and criminology, political science and public administration.

1. Introduction.- 2. Discretion within institutional contexts: Italian Labour Inspectors in the organizational field of the workplace control.- 3.The Italian case: labour inspectors dealing with labour exploitation.- 4. Rooms of discretion: evidence from the field.- 5. Isomorphic pressures and discretion: vignette in interpretative research.- 6. Conclusions.

Rebecca Paraciani is Postdoc Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Bologna, Italy.