Een 'derde weg' voor de sociaalculturele professies

Being an ‘open profession’, social-cultural work has had difficulty in finding its way in the process of professionalization. In this article, Marcel Spierts tries to come up with a strategy to enhance this process. He refuses to accept the idea that socialcultural work is only a ‘semi-profession’, i.e. a profession that is not yet full-grown. Nor does he embrace the option of taking classical professions like doctor and lawyer as a model. In stead, Spierts holds a plea or a ‘third way’-strategy to enhance the professionality and position of social-cultural workers. In his view, empowerment of the profession can best be obtained by combining the idea of a Reflective Practioner with that of Communities of Practice. By bringing in individually obtained knowledge into an environment in which knowledge is shared, this knowledge can be made productive both for the profession and the organisation. Particularly when experiences from within are complemented with knowledge from outside, and when evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence are being mutually related.