Forlagets beskrivelse: Over the past decades, professional public services have been burdened with demands for accountability and with businesslike managerial systems that are endemic to the private sector. In this volume, a team of international experts shows that these influences are relative. They present theoretical and empirical insights on broader changes in and around professional work in healthcare, social welfare, education, and policing. They also analyze coping mechanisms of professionals, which vary from sector to sector and they argue that public professionals will need to develop new skills for working in reconfigured public services.