What does the younger person ask Permission to do? Why does the other person say no? In the poem Ballard of birmingham

a.. a conflict between her competing identities.. apex

an informal structure in a bureaucracy would be something like so-called "office politics". where there's a formal structure set up for the organization, but then an informal subculture as well that has a way of organizing the bureaucracy further. this can be positive because it sets up an added degree of organization, albeit informal, within the bureaucracy.