Sociology of Professions: Towards International Context-Sensitive Approaches
The transformations of many societies into service economies have created a new importance of the sociology of professions across the globe. Yet the contemporary developments call for a critical revision of existing theoretical approaches for two reasons: first, the neoliberal turn in the western wo...
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| Published in: | South African review of sociology 2013-06, Vol.44 (2), p.7-17 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The transformations of many societies into service economies have created a new importance of the sociology of professions across the globe. Yet the contemporary developments call for a critical revision of existing theoretical approaches for two reasons: first, the neoliberal turn in the western world has fundamentally changed the concepts of welfare state and the governance of professions, and the economic breakdown has furthermore fuelled the transformations; and second, little is known on how the dynamics of globalisation and local/national transformations in societies play out in the global South, and how this, in turn, may impact in, and alter the very concept of professions. This article argues the need for international context-sensitive approaches that take into account the intersecting dynamics of different sets of governance in global, local and transnational perspectives and the various ways professions - as 'citizen professionals' - are nested in institutional and social contexts. The blind spots of existing theories that heavily draw on Western/Northern approaches, and that are shaped by the conditions of welfare states, are discussed as well as the major challenges of an international context-sensitive perspective. |
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| ISSN: | 2152-8586 2072-1978 |