ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the taking of, and the performance of roles with a focus on the inter-relationship between the private and public aspects of roles and role taking. A good number of the role-related rules that have an influence on the day-to-day life of the professional practitioner do stem from laws about this and that. One sociologist of the immediate post-war period who had a considerable influence on these issues was the American C. Wright Mills. Mills' aim was to help create a way of thinking about personal troubles that transforms them into public issues, placing/forcing them on to a political agenda, and thereby emphasising the ideological character of social policy often lost at the micro level. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has at its heart the 3Ps: protection, provision and participation, and in our everyday role performance we could all benefit from reflecting upon and embracing these principles.
