Professionnaliser ses émotions : une injonction qui divise

Abstract

Emotional human contacts are an integral part of the job for anyone whose profession consists of roaming streets in the hope of encountering homeless persons. Based on an ethnographic study of three Paris non-profit organisation, the present article describes the norms permeating a social universe in which people are asked to “control their emotions” and keep an “appropriate distance” from the public. It asks how these emotional standards manifest themselves in social workers and volunteers’ conflicting perspectives or values. Biographical interviews with several street professionals reveals that their attitude towards these emotional recommendations – ranging from respect to distrust – transcend the divisions between different kinds of status by linking them to people’s different conceptions of this activity, one rooted in careers forged in people’s prior experience, be itprofessional or activist.

Keywords

• social work
• voluntary work
• associations
• emotional norms