Theorizing the cynical professional: the public interest, urban planning, and the limits of ideology critique

Journal article

A long-standing and foundational claim of professional groups is that they serve the public interest. Such claims are countered by two alternative lines of argument, which argue that professionalism is essentially an ideological construct. The first views professions as deliberately self-serving constructs designed to covertly advance the position of one occupational group. The second argues that professionalism is a disciplinary construct, used to render workers docile. Both rely to some extent on the idea that the ideology of professionalism operates by occluding reality and creating ‘false consciousness’. We offer an alternative reading of the relationship between professionalism, ideology, and service in the public interest, drawing on Žižek’s model of cynical ideology. Analysing a series of interviews with urban planners, we note that they both claim that their professional work is in the public interest, and simultaneously acknowledge that it is not. We argue that this ambivalence conceals the deeper way in which the public interest operates as a structuring ideological fantasy, upholding the profession’s liberal commitment to the idea that it is possible to ‘balance’ interests and achieve socially just outcomes while working within the horizon of capitalism. Professionalism is thus ideological, but at the level of practice, not consciousness: it becomes a series of performative practices that run counter to the claim of working for the greater good. We argue that this offers a more sensitive understanding of the function of ideology for professions claiming to serve the public interest.

Authors: Chapman, K; Tait, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Ephemera Editorial Collective
• Journal: Ephemera
• Publication date: 2024-10-23
• Acceptance date: 2024-03-01
• EISSN: 1473-2866
• Language: English
• Keywords: ideology; cynicism; urban planning; professionalism; public interest