Research Committee on
Sociology of Professional Groups, RC52
Program Theme: Professions and Inequality in a Globalizing World
Program Coordinators
- Ellen KUHLMANN, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany, e.Kuhlmann@em.uni-frankfurt.de
- Mike SAKS, University Campus Suffolk, United Kingdom, m.saks@ucs.ac.uk
Professions across the globe play a key role in the making and unmaking of social inequalities. As nurses, doctors, social carers, teachers, layers, and many others they are the backbone of public sectors serving to improve both everyday life and wellbeing of the people and the functioning of societies. At the same time, professions hold elitist positions in society and claim an expert status, thereby creating (gendered, ethnic/racial, geopolitical, and other) inequalities both globally and locally. Hence, public sectors are facing radical transformations and this includes new emergent professional groups, new forms of “hybrid” and “entrepreneurial” professionalism as well as more integrated modes of professional development. Similarly, gender arrangements are changing, and globalization has added new and other ambivalences of the making and unmaking of inequalities by the professions, that are yet not well understood.
We invite abstracts that address these issues in all areas of the professions either in comparative perspective or in one dimension.
On-line abstracts submission
June 3, 2013 - September 30, 2013 24:00 GMT.A direct submission link will be provided in due course.
If you have questions about any specific session, please feel free to contact the Session Organizer for more information.
Proposed sessions
in alphabetical order:
Challenges for Professionalism in a Global Managerialism
Session OrganizersHelena SERRA, University of Lisbon, Portugal, hserra@doc.iseg.utl.pt
Tiago CORREIA, University of Lisbon, Portugal, Tiago.Correia@iscte.pt
Session in English
The ongoing influence of neo-liberal agendas, alongside the reform of public services under the new public management has led to deep-seated changes in the way work is structured and practised across the globe. Even though the advent of managerialism has sought to limit professional autonomy, professionalism is somehow getting reinforced through either the control of management tasks or the profession’s definition of managerial criteria. Nevertheless, this feature of professionalism still lacks a consensus and has been differently approached among countries. This evidence also places professions against new inequalities as not all can control equally managerial procedures and criteria, nor are in possession of the same resources to limit the external control of managerialism.
We invite papers focusing on several topics, among others: potentially conflictual relations between professional and managerial interests; professionalism between the inclusion and the opposition of managerialism; and managerialism and internal hierarchies of professions.
Change and Inequality in Professional Status
Session OrganizersLars THORUP LARSEN, University of Aarhus, Denmark, lars@ps.au.dk
Gitte SOMMER HARRIS, University of Aarhus, Denmark, gitte@ps.au.dk
Session in English
It is well recognized in the field of professional sociology that members of a profession not only enjoys certain privileges or market monopolies, but typically also a given professional status. The professional status is not constant, however, since a doctor or a teacher might not enjoy the same status today as they did decades ago. Furthermore, the changing patterns of professional status might not simply reflect the public’s view of a specific profession’s knowledge or ethics. The general status of knowledge in society may change, but the same goes for the patterns of social status underlying professional groups.
With the overall aim to understand changes in professional status, this session invites papers that take into account changes over time or the comparative changes between different professions, social groups or countries. Is there a general loss of professional status or rather new inequalities emerging between the status of various professions?
Doing a PhD: Researching, Publishing and Networking in the Field of Sociology of Professions
Session OrganizersMike SAKS, University Campus Suffolk, United Kingdom, m.saks@ucs.ac.uk
Lara MAESTRIPIERI, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy, lara.maestripieri@polimi.it
Session in English
Not open for submission of abstracts.
This invited panel session attempts to build bridges between PhD students from different countries of the world as well as between early career researchers and experienced scholars. This includes, among others, fostering knowledge exchange on how to appropriately configure PhD research; creating ideas for mentorship and networking across countries that help to overcome geopolitical and other inequalities in professional career development; and considering information on publication and discussion with editors of major journals in the field of sociology of professional groups.
Globalization, ICT and Professions: Emerging Trends
Session OrganizersVirendra P. SINGH, University of Allahabad, India, etdrvps@gmail.com
Parvez A. ABBASI, VNSG University, India, parvezabbasi@yahoo.co.in
Session in English
Globalization (along with privatization and liberalization) affects not only the economy of a given society but also has important implications for other social institutions of both the developed and the developing countries. As a structural process, it also creates social inequalities at different levels by making simultaneously, inclusion/exclusion of the persons, social groups and categories. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are at the heart of globalization which not only facilitate it but also help in maintaining integration in the social system. Transnational flows of individuals, commodities and capital affected the existing professions and their support system in various ways and also created new occupational categories with varying degree of professionalism.
Inequities within Professions: Patterns of Intra-professional Hierarchies
Session OrganizerSiddharamesh L. HIREMATH, Gulbarga University, India, slhiremath@rediffmail.com
Session in English
Professions coming to be graded into prestige hierarchies based on their functional importance, functional autonomy, technical expertise and cost and length of training required to pursue them is a universal phenomenon. However, owing to growing intricacies and complexities, hierarchies have emerged within professions segregating professionals along trade, sector, repute, image and location of the organization, professional networks, access to know-how and technology, gender, ethnicity and the like giving rise to social grading of professional groups within professions. In some instances such grading is also based on the levels of professionalism, expertise, approach, effectiveness performance and outcome. These developments appear to have manifested in the warranted and many a time unwarranted inequalities and exclusions among those practising a profession.
This session invites papers that deal empirically and conceptually with the extent, nature, causes and consequences of inequalities within major professional groups in different social and cultural contexts.
Inter-professional Collaboration and Inequality
Session OrganizerMike SAKS, University Campus Suffolk, United Kingdom, m.saks@ucs.ac.uk
Session in English
This session looks at the relationship of inter-professional collaboration with inequality in specific societies and in a more comparative and global context. It asks how far different professions can collaborate effectively across boundaries, not least where they hold different hierarchical positions in a given country and/or more globally. The obstacles to such collaboration such as interests and culture – and how they may be overcome – are also assessed.
Papers for this session are also invited on to what extent inter-professional collaboration can combat inequality in terms of broader societal impact serving the public interest. Contributions should illustrate their analysis with reference to examples from particular professional fields.
In health, for example, papers may consider the collaborative relationship and its impact in relation to inequality between the typically high ranking medical profession and such groups as midwives, nurses and social workers – as well as marginal professions like alternative practitioners.
Knowledge Workers: Processes of Hybridization, Marketization and Subjectivation
Session OrganizersLara MAESTRIPIERI, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy, lara.maestripieri@polimi.it
Emiliana ARMANO, University of Milan, Italy, emi_armano@yahoo.it
Annalisa MURGIA, University of Trento, Italy, annalisa.murgia@unitn.it
Session in English
Differently from traditional professions consolidated in the last century, knowledge workers are characterized by forms of professionalism that find their own peculiarity in the notion of hybridization: they perform their activity under many different typologies of work contract; they form a component of professional work that is increasingly exposed to the logic of market and they are supposed to auto-activate their own resources, empathy and individual autonomy.
The aim of this session is to develop a critical discussion on knowledge workers` conditions and subjectivities. We invite papers that explore the following areas: the representations and experiences of the no-collar workers; the mechanisms of subjectivation and strategies to seek to avoid them; the risk of precariousness and proletarization that might derive from a professionalization driven by market and, finally, their collective practices, with particular attention to new forms of coalition, sociality and social features of welfare, with their limitations and potentialities.
New Inequalities, New Professionalism, New Ethics?
Session OrganizerChristiane SCHNELL, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany, ch.schnell@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Session in English
The session addresses the question if and how the transformations professions experience in contemporary societies affect the concept and reality of professional ethics. For a long time the discussion of professional ethics was structured by the opposition of functionalism and the power approach. Today the role of professions as trustees of the public interest and their endeavours to exploit the image of altruism and ethical responsibility in their own interest are much more understood as two sides of the same coin.
But how relevant are professional ethics in the face of deeper changes of professions and their relation to society, market structures, and organizations and also to their clients? Are professions reconstructing their legitimization on the background of different frameworks and conditions? And how far are professional ethics concerned about social inequalities? What do we know about the moral fragmentation of professional groups? Is pragmatism prevailing or are there new paradigms of morality emerging?
Professionalism and Expertise
Session OrganizerJens-Christian SMEBY, Centre for the Study of Professions, Norway, Jens-Christian.Smeby@hioa.no
Session in English
One of the key characteristics of professions is that they are knowledge based occupational groups and a theoretical knowledge base is considered to be a core element of professionalism. Nevertheless, sociology has mainly concerned itself with the contextual conditions of the development of expertise and its functions in modern societies. Little attention has been paid to what expertise is, how it is developed and what kind of knowledge professionals actually use in their work. While some sociologists have called for a new sociology of expertise, the aim of this session is to explore how studies of expertise and expertise development may contribute to the sociology of professions.
The session addresses three main issues:
- Professionalism and expertise – similarities and differences
- The development of professional expertise in education and work
- The role of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for professional expert performance and legitimacy
Professions, Incentives and Interests
Session OrganizerRuth MCDONALD, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, ruth.mcdonald@nottingham.ac.uk
Session in English
The subject of incentives has been studied widely by economists, particularly in a context where financial incentives are increasingly being used to try to influence professional behaviour and identity. The topic has received less attention from sociologists, yet incentives financial and otherwise, are important features of the landscape in which all professionals work. Linked to this, sociologists have also paid less attention to the concept of ‘interests’ than it deserves. Engaging with the topics of incentives and interests in relation to professions does not imply acceptance of economists’ views of these terms.
This session therefore invites conceptual and empirical papers which bring a sociological lens to the issues of incentives and interests in relation to professional groups, to shed new light and stimulate debate on these issues.
RC52 Business Meeting
Rethinking Professions: Visions and Divisions in World Perspective
Session OrganizerEllen KUHLMANN, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany, e.kuhlmann@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Session in English
Not open for abstract submission.
The transformations of societies into service economies have created a new importance of the sociology of professions across the globe. Yet the developments embody also many challenges that impact in the concepts of professions and professionalism. These transformations may play out differently in the various parts of the world, because the professions are firmly nested in institutional contexts, culture and economy of societies.
This invited panel discussion brings together researchers from different countries. The aim is twofold: first, to place the contemporary developments in the professions in a world perspective and reveal the blind spots and divisions of existing theories; and second, to create visions of an international sociology of professions that is more sensitive to diversity and social contexts and that helps to better understand how professions may foster social equality.
The Changing Relationship between Clinical Professionalism and Management: From Polarisation to Hybridization?
Session OrganizersIan KIRKPATRICK, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, I.Kirkpatrick@lubs.leeds.ac.uk
Mike DENT, University of Staffordshire, United Kingdom, mike.dent@staffs.ac.uk
Federico LEGA, Bocconi Management School, Italy
Session in English
In health systems around the world there has been a common focus on strengthening the management capabilities of hospitals and other provider organisations. A key question arising from this concerns the shifting relationship between clinical professionals and management. In most health systems doctors and nurses are being co-opted into management and leadership roles and asked to focus increasingly on the financial performance of health services. However, the consequences remain unclear. On the one hand it is suggested that these changes are leading to greater polarisation between managers and clinicians, or, after Freidson, re-stratification within the professions themselves. Against this is the suggestion that clinical professionalism itself is changing leading to hybrid identities and practices that mainstream management concerns and priorities.
The aim of this session is to explore these themes and also think about their impact on the way health services are delivered and the experiences of patients.
Theoretical Challenges for Professions and Professionalism: Changes, Inequalities, Values and Ideologies
Session OrganizerJulia EVETTS, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, julia.evetts@nottingham.ac.uk
Session in English
Change is a constant feature of professional, knowledge-based, service-sector work and occupational control of the work and discretionary decision-making is increasingly difficult to sustain. Professional work both helps to alleviate and yet at the same time contributes to the maintenance of inequalities, nationally and internationally. Professionalism can be interpreted both as an occupational value and something worth preserving but also as an ideology and mechanism of social control and unequal power. New questions are being asked about professions and professionalism and some established theories seem less relevant in different time periods, policy contexts, areas and geographical regions. Also new knowledge-based occupations develop which pose new questions and challenges to and for theories of professionalism.
We look forward to receiving abstract proposals which support and/or challenge existing theories and interpretations and welcome new interpretations and suggestions of new concepts for professions and professionalism in a globalising world.
Joint Sessions
Click on the session title to read its description.Globalization and Human Resources for Health in Asian Countries
Joint session of RC15 Sociology of Health and RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups [host committee]
Governing the Health Professions: Bringing Equality into Health Human Resources Policy
Joint session of RC15 Sociology of Health and RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups [host committee]
Professional Labour in a Globalized World: The Cross-Bordering and Internationalization of Knowledge Workers
Joint session of RC30 Sociology of Work and RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups [host committee]
Restructuring Care Policies and (Re-)Making Care Professions. Part I
Joint session of RC19 Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy and RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups [host committee]
Restructuring Care Policies and (Re-)Making Care Professions. Part II
Joint session of RC19 Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy [host committee] and RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups
