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Beyond customized services? A relational perspective on street-level bureaucracy Even as enthusiasm for customized public services fades, professional discretion remains inevitable and necessary. Rules never fully determine how professionals should understand a situation or what constitutes an appropriate decision. The question then becomes how to organize and enable the responsible, considered, and responsive use of discretion. This essay develops a relational perspective by examining how rules and discretion, policy and implementation, and individual action and institutional structures shape one another in everyday work. I argue that enabling responsible discretion requires supporting the collective work on which professional judgments depend, providing structures that offer guidance as well as constraints, and organizing opportunities for policymakers and implementers to adjust their work to one another. The essay thus proposes a different perspective on street-level bureaucracy, focusing on the everyday mundane work, interactions, and relationships through which public service delivery is made workable – or gets stuck.