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Government and Community Development in Ireland: The Contested Subjects of Professionalism and Expertise
Author(s) -
Meade Rosie R.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00924.x
Subject(s) - optimal distinctiveness theory , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , public administration , community development , sociology , work (physics) , reputation , public relations , citizen journalism , community organization , big society , political science , social science , law , politics , linguistics , philosophy , mechanical engineering , psychology , algorithm , computer science , psychotherapist , engineering
This paper historicises the recent and ongoing professionalisation of community development in the Republic of Ireland. The term professionalisation refers both to the designation and accreditation of a distinctive community work occupation and a wider set of processes that effect more strategic approaches to the planning, delivery and evaluation of community organisations. The paper reviews some tensions associated with professionalisation; tensions that closely relate to community work's reputation as a “bottom‐up” or “participatory” strategy. It also interrogates community development's place as a strategy of government in contemporary Ireland. In so doing it reconsiders the assumed separateness and distinctiveness of the state and community sectors, arguing that the state has been centrally implicated in calling the community sector into being. In their turn community development organisations have shaped and mediated policy delivery on the ground. It is these processes of hybridisation, co‐operation, antagonism and struggle that have given professionalisation its momentum.