'Associated life': social software, professional relationships and democratic professionalism

Democratic professionalism is as much a practice as it is a constellation of values – a form of re-professionalization built around models of active and collaborative democratic change. One of the many problems inherent in democratic professionalism is the part played by professionals in both the creation and maintenance of human rights, and in the dialogue concerning the nature of freedom in a democracy. Professionals may engage only in technocratic professionalism; or they may play a role in analysing problems of democratic engagement, authenticity and integrity, thus engaging in democratic professionalism. How can we enable students to learn the latter, rather than the former? This paper argues, first, that Dewey's form of educational praxis is one method by which we can encourage democratic professionalism; and that a key element of our approach should be the Deweyan concern with ‘associated life’ and 'associated thought', namely the cultural and social forms of professional association, and the forms and patterns of social thinking that professionals undertake in practice. Second, and moving from the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first century, the internet offers us profound opportunities to engage in new forms of social and educational engagement, and particularly in the applications known as social software. Two case studies are offered. The first describes a regulatory initiative to embody Deweyan forms of associated life, while the second embodies Dewey’s value of associated thinking. I give some examples of how such software has the capability to enrich learning about professional relationships, and to transform professional education and knowledge production. In particular I shall show how critical is the focus on professional relationships early in a programme of study; how learning about and from such relationships can encourage greater engagement with programme content; and what learners can achieve as a result of such engagement. Finally, I analyse how such software could be used to facilitate forms of democratic professionalism in society