Share This Page
Democratic Professionalism
Citizen Participation and the Reconstruction of Professional Ethics, Identity, and Practice
288 pages | 6 x 9 | 2008
ISBN 978-0-271-03332-7 | cloth: $55.00 sh
Paperback edition is not available
Buy the Kindle Edition for $4.79
"In carefully argued chapters on public journalism, restorative justice, and bioethics, Dzur outlines concrete steps some experts have taken, and others might take, to break down the barriers--both structural and normative--their professions have erected to individual and community-based civic engagement. Professionals must learn that their knowledge is not apolitical, and that their standards of evidence and practice are not the only legitimate ones to apply. A wise, critical exercise in applied political theory, this work deserves a wide audience." — J.Simeone, Choice
Bringing expert knowledge to bear in an open and deliberative way to help solve pressing social problems is a major concern today, when technocratic and bureaucratic decision making often occurs with little or no input from the general public. Albert Dzur proposes an approach he calls “democratic professionalism” to build bridges between specialists in domains like law, medicine, and journalism and the lay public in such a way as to enable and enhance broader public engagement with and deliberation about major social issues.
Sparking a critical and constructive dialogue among social theories of the professions, professional ethics, and political theories of deliberative democracy, Dzur reveals interests, motivations, strengths, and vulnerabilities in conventional professional roles that provide guideposts for this new approach. He then applies it in examining three practical arenas in which experiments in collaboration and power-sharing between professionals and citizens have been undertaken: public journalism, restorative justice, and the bioethics movement. Finally, he draws lessons from these cases to refine this innovative theory and identify the kinds of challenges practitioners face in being both democratic and professional.
Albert W. Dzur is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bowling Green State University, where he is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Ethics and Politics of Professions
1 The Missing Agents of Contemporary Democratic Thought
2 Beyond Self-Interest: The Apolitical Picture of Professionals
3 Professionals versus Democracy: The Radical Critique of Technocrats, Disabling Experts, and Task Monopolists
4 Task Sharing for Democracy: Themes from Political Theory
5 Public Journalism
6 Restorative Justice
7 Bioethics
8 Context and Consequences: The Duties of Democratic Professionals
Conclusion: The University’s Role in the Democratization of Professional Ethics
Index