The exercise of political, economic, and administrative authority in the management of a city. Proudfoot and McCann (2008) Urb. Geog. 29, 4 discuss how street-level bureaucrats negotiate the constraints and pressures inherent to their practice while also exercising a degree of discretion, arguing that these micro-level concerns are important to understanding how cities are produced, but must also be linked with analyses of wider processes that shape contemporary urban development.