The anthology, ‘Shaping professional identities’, focuses on the professional ‘institutional identity’ and examines the work that takes place within welfare organizations and perceives it as more than just individual-oriented work. How does the welfare state outline particular frameworks for the professionals’ jobs, and how do these frameworks affect the welfare efforts and the professionals’ self-perception – and thus the conditions for the client work as well?  

The book presents a number of analyses of the many paradoxes in the daily work the professionals describe pertaining to when they are asked to implement the legislation and continue the norms celebrated by the welfare state. Examples from the social sector, the healthcare sector and the pedagogical sector are presented. The chapters of the book comprise of a broad empirical field, including professions such as addiction treatment providers, social workers, doctors, nurses, schoolteachers, pedagogues and prison officers. The analyses of the book indicate that even though these fields are very different, then there are currently certain circumstances that arguably “create one professional” in a very particular way. 

The anthology is directed towards students at the socially specialized studies and the colleges of social education, students at the university institutes where there is conducted research in welfare institutions, and for the practitioners of social work.  

The book has been published in three editions.