Enabling civic initiatives: frontline workers as democratic professionals in Amsterdam

Abstract

For more than fifteen years, frontline workers in the Netherlands have facilitated civic initiatives by practicing a ‘modest approach’ that can be seen as an example of democratic professionalism as developed by Albert Dzur. In this paper we empirically explore the understudied topic of how the implementation of this modest approach affects frontline workers. Based on a case study in Amsterdam, we find that frontline workers’ face a tension between sharing authority while retaining professional responsibility, which manifests itself as active support versus stepping back to leave the initiative to citizens, and as being present versus other daily work or private life. If frontline workers do not succeed in dealing with these tensions, democratic professionalism ceases to exist. Reflecting on this tension between sharing authority while retaining professional responsibility may help to develop a richer understanding of democratic professionalism.