ABSTRACT
Behaviour is regarded as a developmental achievement for securing an essential professional identity. As a matter of concern, professional identity in social work has an institutional value and logic which foregrounds any analysis. This chapter deals with each of these institutional logics: Productionist rationality; Sentimental politics of authenticity; Dynamic stabilisation as a mode of professional reproduction; and Regimes of justification, worth and recognition. The most obvious example of the dynamic stabilisation logic is the continuing professional development (CPD) agenda – a central requirement for professional registration – which refers to learning activities that professionals engage in to develop and enhance their abilities. Throughout the CPD policy literature, practitioners – and particularly newly qualified social workers – are hailed to "maintain", "assert" and "embrace" their professional identities. Throughout the literature there is a tacit ideal of authenticity of a professional self that can be organized to convey the values and mission of social work.
