Even though chapter 10 could be read as the concluding chapter, this is not where we want to end this book. We ended chapter 10 by pointing to some agendas emerging out of this book that we thought deserved elaboration. In this and the next chapter we want to elaborate on two of these agendas: the citizenship of professionals and the gender dimension of active citizenship. This chapter is devoted to the changing power-knowledge relations between citizens and professionals (used in the broad sense, including all somewhat skilled ‘public service’ workers), while the next chapter elaborates on a feminist agenda of public and private.

Professionals are traditionally understood as possessing specialised training, knowledge and skills as well as a particular ethos to serve the public good or even a ‘secular calling’ to serve higher values such as health, freedom or development (Freidson 2001). The notion of active citizenship, however, has repercussions for what it means to be a service professional. The roles of citizens and professionals become more complicated, but they seldom get blurred. In this chapter we take up this theme of the citizenship of service professionals.

We begin by exploring the transformations in the professional-user relationship, drawing on chapters two to nine in this volume to highlight three possible ‘regimes’ of professional practice that may coexist in specific sectors, services and places but that suggest different kinds of ethos of professional practice. We also highlight the significance of these regimes for unpaid carers as well as paid workers. We go on to suggest some of the ‘changing landscapes of power’ that are reordering professional work and that govern the emergence and sustainability of specific regimes. We take up Ellen Kuhlmann's idea of ‘citizen professionals’, showing how professionals and other workers exercise control and influence not only in defence of their professional interests but also shaping transformations in professional practice (Kuhlmann 2006). Professionals and other workers are both activated by government to take on new roles, and also sometimes take action to transform the meanings of active citizenship discourse and to influence its outcomes on users and on the wider society.