Professional Occupations and Organizations

This Element engages with fundamental questions concerning the future trajectory of professions as a distinct occupational category and of the formal organizations which represent employ or host professionals. It begins with a literature review that identifies a functionalist power and institutionalist lens for the study of professional occupations and organizations. It then reviews a series of challenges which face the contemporary professions. Finally the Element explores contemporary developments in the worlds of professions applying three units of analysis: macro (professional occupations and their associations) meso (professional organizations) and micro (professional workers).