Changes in the Social Position of Professional Occupations

Abstract

The position of professions within society has long been a subject of great interest and controversy among sociologists. Currently, however, the social position of professions appears particularly worthy of study, for two reasons. First, sociologists have recently formulated a variety of frameworks of analysis which attempt to identify the means by which occupations are able to secure and maintain for themselves the privileges and power of “profession” — thereby manipulating their social position. Second, some professions are now facing significant social changes which may provide greater threats to their established positions than they have experienced in the recent past. Sociologists such as Elliott and members of professions themselves have claimed that the professions face a “crisis.” These commentators describe changes which largely concern those issues of autonomy and power that are now coming to be regarded as salient in the study of professions — changes such as a diminution of professions' control over their conditions of practice and over their established market segments. Investigation of these changes should be able to furnish evidence which is relevant to a quesiton of current sociological concern, and also provide an interpretative challenge which may help to refine existing frameworks of analysis. These considerations form the rationale for the present paper, which analyses recent changes affecting the social position of five professions in the United Kingdom and the United States. The five professions are accounting, architecture, civil engineering, law, and medicine (including dentistry).

Citation

Child, J. and Fulk Schriesheim, J. (1980), "Changes in the Social Position of Professional Occupations", Management Research News, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 18-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027773