In this article, the authors examine the claims of professionalization in youth work as both a process and outcome that aims to ultimately improve the lives of young people. The topic of professionalization is then approached through three circles of inquiry that reframe the issue(s) through the historical and sociocultural situatedness of professional movements; the contemporary sociopolitical and sociolegal context; and those self-referential questions that deal with the practice of youth work itself. (Contains 2 figures.)