Paternalism, professionalism and public sector leisure provision: the boundaries of a leisure profession

Local justice and public sector leisure policy

“…McNamee et al (2000) argued that leisure professionals in the public sector should strive for an autonomy-respectful model of professional paternalism in contrast, say, to the older model of state or 'bureau professionalism' (Butcher, 1994). Figure 2 shows how this role may operate within a leisure services context.…”

“…To what extent are philosophers or politicians to be thought of as the experts? Is the notion of a leisure expert itself meaningless when the concept is itself so contested (Henry, 1993;Parry and Long, 1989;McNamee et al, 2000)? As Swift points out: the reason for a belief and its causal origins are different in kind, and it seems open to the normative philosopher to argue, nothing to do with the explanation of why someone holds a particular concept of justice tells for or against that conception's being morally justified.…”

The limits of utilitarianism as a professional ethic in public sector leisure policy and provision

“…Of course, this does not give them carte blanche. Their paternalism must match up to the conception that we have described as autonomy-respectful paternalism (McNamee et al, 2000). The public status of national, regional, and community leisure professionals, requires that they indeed make efforts seriously to understand the preferences of those whom they serve.…”

“…In McNamee et al (2000) an account of leisure professions was developed in which the notion of moral and technical authority was foregrounded. Leisure management was understood as being a paradigmatic example of the leisure professions.…”

‘Hollow from the start’? Professional associations and the professionalisation of tourism

“…The characteristics described above are evident in her list: long training or education; a code of ethics; organisation/association; complexity; altruistic service; body of knowledge; people-oriented; licensed; high prestige; competence tested; self-employed; high income. McNamee et al (2000) commend a very similar list of key characteristics, based on their reading of Bayles (1988) as does Harris (2004) (see also HaywoodFarmer and Stuart (1990) for a discussion of the characteristics in a professional service context). Burgess (2011) provides the most recent illustration of the application of the trait approach when she uses it to assess the professionalism of hotel (financial) managers.…”