Interviewing pollution inspectors and companies as well as observing regulatory negotiations between them, he found that the 'street-level' bureaucracy is far from being a standardised, routine and technical process. Rather, environmental legislation is cut down to size and made workable in the process of regulation in and with the industry. Personal style, dramatic skill, emotion and a degree of bluff are used to flesh out the regulatory skeleton.
Many inspectors prefer a collaborative style of regulation, which lends itself to mutual capture.
Each side becomes committed to finding solutions in a way that doesn't upset their relationship. Fineman concludes that, in this form, regulation is a social construct in which the regulatory official plays a key role. Such processes complicate attempts at organisational change or standardisation of regulatory practice. Street-level Bureaucrats and the Social Construction of Environmental Control.