Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
Post-industrial transformations have significantly reshaped how young children are cared for outside the family home. Among other factors, the labour market participation of young mothers and a concomitant wish for intensive mothering have led to more diversified childcare solutions for the under-threes. Collective childcare projects (CCPs) promote approaches that are based on a home-like care environment and are run by educators and parents who have usually not trained in formal institutions but who become professionals in informal communities. Applying a discursive approach, this article asks: what characterises professionalism in CCPs? What type of professionalisation is being pursued? We analyse the case of Barcelona, using 45 interviews with association representatives, policymakers, campaigners, educators and parents. Our findings show the important role played by communities of care in defining professionalism and in consolidating a counter-professionalisation ethos, while evidencing their reluctance to pursue formal professionalisation.
Category Archives: Arts and Health
Climate Crisis and Alienation
Decarbonisation, place attachment and agency: just transition in old industrial regions
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Technology as Capital: Challenging the Illusion of the Green Machine
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The American Wasteland: Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs on the Ecology of Racialization
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“A little taste of what it would be like to be in the military”: Performing militarism at the Canada army run
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
While significant attention has been paid to the perpetuation of pro-military ideology via discourse and political practice, less attention has been paid to the role of the body in (re)producing militarism. Drawing on 40 interviews with primarily civilian Canada Army Run participants, I argue that militarism is reproduced in part via civilians’ embodied performances. Performances of militarism allow participants to feel and thus reproduce militarism through the body. Performances of military support allow participants to orient themselves toward the military in a way that reproduces pro-military mythologies and situates the performer socially as national subjects who appropriately exalt the military (and are thus deserving of exaltation in turn), binding participants together and reaffirming social bonds created via shared love of the military. Ultimately, performances of militarism reify the military as exalted, insulating it from critical consideration by the public.
While significant attention has been paid to the perpetuation of pro-military ideology via discourse and political practice, less attention has been paid to the role of the body in (re)producing militarism. Drawing on 40 interviews with primarily civilian Canada Army Run participants, I argue that militarism is reproduced in part via civilians’ embodied performances. Performances of militarism allow participants to feel and thus reproduce militarism through the body. Performances of military support allow participants to orient themselves toward the military in a way that reproduces pro-military mythologies and situates the performer socially as national subjects who appropriately exalt the military (and are thus deserving of exaltation in turn), binding participants together and reaffirming social bonds created via shared love of the military. Ultimately, performances of militarism reify the military as exalted, insulating it from critical consideration by the public.
The Old Mole and the New Democratic Party: Why the NDP is an Impediment to Social Progress in Canada
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Book Review: Bi: Bisexual, pansexual, fluid, and nonbinary youth
Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
On N. K. Jemisin and Speculative Fiction as a Liberatory Space
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The stealth rise of control: Forgotten trust in contemporary professionalism
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
Professionalism has long been a term understood to distinguish social strata, commonly highlighting those trusted to employ expert knowledge for the benefit of society. Professionalism however is evolving; this position article contributes to the subject in drawing together different threads of literature beyond empirical studies to extend the discussion on professionalism, shedding a light on an area of interest. Specifically, it is argued that professionalism is threatened by the shift of the loci of control from the traditional, occupational professional positions to what is now contemporary professionalism. To facilitate such a transition, trust, a long-time fundamental component of traditional professionalism, is being readily and overtly substituted by control, wielded in and by modern organisations for the primary benefit of that organisation. The first part of the article explicates an understanding of professionalism and trust. The following section then introduces the relationship between both traditional and contemporary professionalism with trust. The third part moves to discuss the rise of differing types of control, arguing that trust has been forced to take a minor role in contemporary notions of professionalism in organisational practice, leading to the term being utilised to induce the required behaviours within those organisations. The article concludes with direction on both potential implications and applications of the theoretical points raised through the discussion.
Professionalism has long been a term understood to distinguish social strata, commonly highlighting those trusted to employ expert knowledge for the benefit of society. Professionalism however is evolving; this position article contributes to the subject in drawing together different threads of literature beyond empirical studies to extend the discussion on professionalism, shedding a light on an area of interest. Specifically, it is argued that professionalism is threatened by the shift of the loci of control from the traditional, occupational professional positions to what is now contemporary professionalism. To facilitate such a transition, trust, a long-time fundamental component of traditional professionalism, is being readily and overtly substituted by control, wielded in and by modern organisations for the primary benefit of that organisation. The first part of the article explicates an understanding of professionalism and trust. The following section then introduces the relationship between both traditional and contemporary professionalism with trust. The third part moves to discuss the rise of differing types of control, arguing that trust has been forced to take a minor role in contemporary notions of professionalism in organisational practice, leading to the term being utilised to induce the required behaviours within those organisations. The article concludes with direction on both potential implications and applications of the theoretical points raised through the discussion.