Description: In the last decades in European welfare states, target agreements have become an important instrument in pedagogical fields of action such as youth welfare and youth employment services. These agreements on objectives with both the young people and their parents are supposed to co-ordinate the professional education process with the objectives and needs of these clients. Looking closer at the rationalities of these instruments it is obvious, that they follow the economical logic of project cycle management: planning, providing services, controlling and evaluation of performance. In our paper, we are developing the thesis, that rationalities of pedagogical professional acting will be changed by focussing on target agreements, e.g. concerning the view on the young people, their families, but also the role of the professionals and their implicit acting theories. The question we would like to discuss is, if these new formations of knowledge can be considered as a part of pedagogical professionalism and if they go together with the knowledge of pedagogical processes. Our theoretical framework is the sociology of knowledge: Knowledge in this sense is neither a subjective construction nor objective knowledge. Knowledge means socially constructed knowledge, which can be reflexively conscious but also implicit knowledge of routines in daily practices (s. Schneider/Hirseland 2005, p. 256). Taking a closer look at elements of pedagogical theories, we will first give a short outline of elements of pedagogical professionalism. Secondly, we will present the results of a meta-analysis of various reports, in which the planning and evaluating of the educational and helping processes in youth welfare systems are analyzed. These reports will be reread against the background of the question of which pedagogical processes are emphasized and which are neglected (Köngeter). Thirdly, we will show how the mixture of economical and pedagogical knowledge is imported into institutions concerning youth employment services, e.g. as a specific form of case management. We will present first results of an empirical research project. Using the method of conversation analysis, the research works out, how professionals talk with their clients in youth employment services and it reconstructs the mixed rationalities in these talks (Karl). The detailed meta-analysis and conversation analysis will show the contradictions in the mixture of economical and pedagogical rationalities: whereas the pedagogical perspective is aware of difficulties in coping with one's life, crises and the loss of opportunities for action and abilities to act, the basis of target agreements and planning processes is the capability of self-management. Methodology: Theoretical and methodological framework is the sociology of knowledge. Two research methods will be used 1.) Meta-analysis of various studies in which the planning and evaluating of the educational and helping processes in youth welfare systems are analyzed. 2.) For the analysis of talks in youth employment services we will use the method of conversation analysis. Data Basis: various transcriptions of institutional talks. Conclusions: First of all we expect, that the two analyses will show, in what different ways the agreements on objectives and their evaluation legitimate the professionals towards society and their own professions. Secondly we'll show that this "education by objectives" will not be without consequences for the education and consultation itself: We expect, that youth welfare and youth employment services are losing sight of all those processes, problems, resources and goals, which are not transformable into s.m.a.r.t. (simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) objectives.