Reconceptualising professionalism in social work: a critical reflection on classical theoretical models

This study reconceptualizes the professional status of social work through a multi-paradigmatic lens, assessing how classical models structural-functionalism, sequential development, and attribute-based approaches – capture the profession’s defining features. Although these frameworks offer useful ideal-typical insights, they only partially explain the structural inequalities, gendered hierarchies, and symbolic devaluation that shape social work, especially in post-socialist welfare contexts. Drawing on feminist, critical, neo-Weberian, and discursive theories, the study conceptualises professionalism as a socially constructed, historically embedded, and inherently power-laden process. It proposes a reflexive, care-oriented model that integrates ethical responsibility, social embeddedness, and interprofessional legitimacy as complementary sources of authority. Drawing on classical and contemporary scholarship, with particular attention to Eastern Europe, the analysis shows that although classical models remain influential, feminised care professions require alternative frameworks that more accurately reflect their specific structural conditions and value orientations. In doing so, the study contributes to international debates and supports the revaluation of care within contemporary welfare systems.