Queering Professionalism: Pitfalls and Possibilities

With a focus on neoliberalism and its intersection with systems of oppression, inequalities, and the regulation of queer knowledge and subjectivities, Queering Professionalism provides a distinct contribution to the emerging literature on the regulation and professionalization of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and others marginalized by cisheteronormativity within the “helping professions” and social services.

This collection seeks to queer and disrupt ideas and understandings of the helping professions as benevolent and inherently caring by bringing together a diverse range of authors from different fields within the helping professions, such as child and youth care, education, early childhood education, dietetics, and social work. The book draws connections between neoliberalism, professionalization, structures of cisheteronormativity, and other intersecting oppressions to examine the possibilities and pitfalls of professionalism.

Contributors come from various social service and helping professions to collectively critique how neoliberalism operates to silence and regulate marginalized perspectives within the various social service and education fields. By thinking with and employing queer theoretical frameworks, Queering Professionalism reimagines and disrupts neoliberal regimes that rationalize the violent conditions within and outside of helping institutions and orientations.