The making of ‘professional amateurs’

Abstract

The aim of this article is, through empirical material from Norway, to grasp a particular form of non-profit professionalization spurred by the incorporation of policies of service user involvement in health care and in social services. By drawing on perspectives from the research on professionalization, our ambition is to increase the understanding of the nature of this form of professionalization, how it differs from other kinds of professionalization in the non-profit sector and why it achieves its distinctive features. We denote the professionalization of service users’ work as representatives, as the making of ‘professional amateurs’ to capture its paradoxical nature – that while the process of professionalization resembles occupational professionalization, the voluntary workers who are becoming professionalized are still amateurs. It is professionalization in the form of increasing the competence of the voluntary workers, not professionalization through transforming voluntary work tasks into occupations and paid employment. It is a form of competence fundamentally resting on personal experience with the issues with which the work is concerned, not a competence to be achieved solely through education and professional training.

The Participation of People in Vulnerable Situations in Interest Organisations: A Qualitative Study of Representatives Views

“…However, the findings from this study also suggest that participation as a living example is more common than participation as a spokesperson among people who currently use public services. The informants connected this trend to the competence requirement in terms of being a spokesperson, which is in line with research suggesting that organisations and representatives are becoming more professionalised and focused on building such competence (Andreassen et al, 2014;Krick, 2021;Learmonth et al, 2009;Martin, 2008a). This development could also lead to an organisation pursuing professional logic at the cost of civil society logic.…”

“…The individual stories of these people may also be given precedence over collective knowledge due to increasingly individualised political agendas (Näslund, 2022). Andreassen et al (2014) used the term professional amateurs to describe the role of representatives of voluntary and social movement organisations and how their self-governed, educative work leads to professionalisation. The authors argued that the role of a representative must still rely on lived experiences of using public services.…”

Co-production as a driver of client satisfaction with public service organizations: an analysis of German day-care centres

“…Yet, volunteers can supplement the professional staff only to a limited extent and only in certain areas. In other words and as Andreassen, Breit, and Legard (2014) put it, co-production in the form of volunteering has its barriers in the lack of experience and in dilettantism on the clients' side. Accordingly, a high degree of economic co-production does not necessarily have to be associated with positive outcomes of PSO activities.…”

Professionalization of voluntary sport organizations – a study of the Quality Club Programme of the Norwegian Football Association

“…In later stages, professionalization could affect power, influence and communication, both within organizations and between organizations and their environments (Abbott, 1988;Freidson, 2001;Larson, 1977;Wilensky, 1964). A question of special relevance for the present case is how characteristics specific to voluntary organizations are challenged in such processes (Andreassen, Breit, & Legard, 2014;Dowling et al, 2014;Eliasoph, 2013;Hwang & Powell, 2009;Nagel, Schlesinger, Bayle, et al, 2015;Seippel, 2010;Staggenborg, 1988).…”