Stöd inom ramarna

En samtalsanalys av hur Kronofogdens kundservice bemöter uttryck för ekonomisk utsatthet

Abstract

This article explores how talk about financial hardship is responded to in service calls to the Swedish Enforcement Authority (SEA), a national government agency working with debts. Talk about financial hardship can present a dilemma for frontline service officials, who are expected to provide responsive, personalized and empowering support while remaining impartial and effective. Using Conversation Analysis (CA) alongside theories of Street-Level Bureaucracy (SLB), the study examines how frontline service officials respond to clients’ talk about financial hardship, and how their answers are shaped by general norms of institutional interaction, as well as the SEA’s specific routines, regulations and ideals. The data comprises 113 recorded phone calls to the SEA’s centralized customer service. The analysis shows that frontline officials tend to prioritize service and minimize affiliation with the clients’ stances. As a result, the SEA’s support is formulated as institutional, objective, and neutral. At the same time, the analysis indi­ cates how the responses involve a delicate balancing act between alignment and affiliation, and between the SEA’s routines and regulations. By analysing naturally occurring interactions, the article illustrates how frontline service officials balance, invoke and negotiate ideals, routines and regulations in practice. In doing so, the article also demonstrates how conversation analysis can concretize and refine theories of professional interaction.