Policy, People, and the New Professional: An Introduction

Abstract

In the 1970s and 1980s, scholars were loudly criticising the power and intentions of social professionals. Three decades later, one hears a different voice, that of professionals whose power, expertise and knowledge are being undermined, which is causing serious problems. During an interview, Bourdieu (1998) said that the right hand of the state does not know what the left hand is doing. In other words, technicians, bureaucrats and policymakers have no clue about the work of those who actually implement public policy, such as teachers, policemen and social workers. As a consequence, the knowledge of what is really going on in society is not shared with decision makers, who in turn do not acknowledge the specific character of socio-professional work. They do not distinguish between the logic of the market and professional logic: ‘How can we not see, for example, that the glorification of earnings, productivity, and competitiveness, or just plain profit, tends to undermine the very foundation of functions that depend on a certain professional disinterestedness often associated with militant devotion?’ (Bourdieu 2002: 183- 184).