Abstract
Across Europe, there has been growing enthusiasm for the inclusion of voluntary organizations in welfare work. This article shows that this results in a new politics of voluntarism in a Danish social policy context. The communication of various organizations taken together constitutes the self-referential communication of a hybrid ‘third-order’ organization. Using key notions drawn from the work of Niklas Luhmann, the article explores how the communication of what Gunther Teubner has called the ‘many-headed hydra’ of such organizations can be understood. In the case of voluntary social work, communication rests on an undisputed distinction between professionalism and amateurism that fosters a number of paradoxes. These paradoxes are shown to be constitutive of voluntary social work itself.
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