Sociology of Professions

Food, Drugs, and TV: The Social Study of Corporate Science

by David Schleifer

Coauthored with Bart Penders, published in Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 31 (6), 431-434.

The vast, heterogeneous, and consequential world of cor-
porate science demands and invites empirical inquiry. The vast, heterogeneous, and consequential world of cor-
porate science demands and invites empirical inquiry.

Small Pharmacies and the National Health Service

by Robert Dingwall

Co-authored with Pamela Watson.  Published by Trent Institute for Health Services Research 2002

It is hard to see that the small pharmacy business, whether solo, as here or, by extension, the smaller chain, can... more It is hard to see that the small pharmacy business, whether solo, as here or, by extension, the smaller chain, can have much future, unless they can develop a ‘boutique’ strategy that will establish some line which is sufficient to sustain them.  Even here, the danger is that a successful strategy will simply be picked up by larger players.  Organic food was once the exclusive province of relatively small, committed shops: now it is a mass consumer product that fills the stores of their mega-competitors.  A more clinical relationship with customers might help, but the NHS contract would need substantial reworking to pay for this.  Of course, this contract would have to be offered without discrimination, which opens the door to the larger players to derive greater benefits because of their ability to spread overheads.

Solo practice is already struggling.  Like all small businesses, it has difficulty in carrying the regulatory overheads imposed by modern societies.  Individually, VAT returns, health and safety requirements, employment protection legislation, access for people with disabilities and so on may all be eminently desirable.  Cumulatively, they impose increasingly onerous burdens on small businesses, who have less access to specialist expertise on compliance, less leverage in negotiating interpretations with regulators and less capital to make necessary investments.  These problems are multiplied by the special requirements of a regulated profession.  Re-certification based on CPD participation, for example, becomes yet another burden on an owner-manager, whose quality of life is already under pressure.  The larger players can deal with this by internalising locum arrangements, establishing their own supply banks or extending their use of part-time or ‘floating’ staff to cover absences.  The solo finds the pool shrinking as locums find that they have difficulty in complying with the re-certification requirements and sees that this may not be a possible exit route into their own retirement. 

It may be that we as a community feel that businesses which cannot both meet all our regulatory expectations and give their owners an acceptable quality of life, do not deserve to survive. However, we should be sure that we are not losing something else that might be valuable in the process and, to the extent that the changing business conditions result from deliberate NHS policy choices, we surely have an obligation to manage the transition in a more orderly way.

Réformer les pratiques policières par la formation?

by David Pichonnaz

Wallander, L. (2011). Measuring social workers' judgements: Why and how to use the factorial survey approach in the study of professional judgements. Journal of Social Work. doi: 10.1177/1468017310387463

by Lisa Wallander

Summary: The factorial survey approach, which was first introduced in the social sciences around the beginning of the... more Summary: The factorial survey approach, which was first introduced in the social sciences around the beginning of the 1980s, constitutes an advanced method for measuring human judgements of people or social situations. At the general level, this quasi-experimental approach involves presenting respondents with vignettes (fictive descriptions), in which selected characteristics describing the vignette ‘person’ or ‘situation’ are simultaneously manipulated. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual and an analytical framework for factorial survey studies of professional judgements in social work.

Findings: In the first part of the article, I develop and discuss the proposition that this approach may be used in order to study the contents of professional judgements about the diagnosis and treatment of clients. The ‘contents’ is discussed in terms of knowledge assumptions that practitioners explicitly and tacitly use as a basis for their professional judgements. Second, I outline a strategy for modelling social workers’ judgements. This modelling strategy proceeds from the possibilities afforded by multilevel regression analysis.

Applications: Findings from analyses of factorial survey data may reveal both professional agreement and disagreement in practitioners’ judgements. While results that reveal high levels of disagreement in judgements about what constitutes a particular diagnosis or about which intervention is the most suitable for a particular client may raise questions as regards the ‘professionalism’ of practitioners’ judgements, results that reveal professional agreement in diagnostic and treatment assumptions may be transformed into hypotheses that can be tested further in research.

Medical regulation, spectacular transparency and the blame business

by Michael Fischer

Co-authored with Gerry McGivern (2010) Special issue on ‘Modernising medical regulations – where are we now?’ Journal of Health Organization and Management, 24(6): 597–610

The purpose of this paper is to explore general practitioners' (GPs') and psychiatrists' views and experiences of... more The purpose of this paper is to explore general practitioners' (GPs') and psychiatrists' views and experiences of transparent forms of medical regulation in practice, as well as those of medical regulators and those representing patients and professionals. The research included interviews with GPs, psychiatrists and others involved in medical regulation, representing patients and professionals. A qualitative narrative analysis of the interviews was then conducted. Narratives suggest rising levels of complaints, legalisation and blame within the National Health Service (NHS). Three key themes emerge. First, doctors feel "guilty until proven innocent" within increasingly legalised regulatory systems and are consequently practising more defensively. Second, regulation is described as providing "spectacular transparency", driven by political responses to high profile scandals rather than its effects in practice, which can be seen as a social defence. Finally, it is suggested that a "blame business" is driving this form of transparency, in which self-interested regulators, the media, lawyers, and even some patient organisations are fuelling transparency in a wider culture of blame. A relatively small number of people were interviewed, so further research testing the findings would be useful. Transparency has some perverse effects on doctors' practice.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Rising levels of blame has perverse consequences for patient care, as doctors are practicing more defensively as a result, as well as significant financial implications for NHS funding. Transparent forms of regulation are assumed to be beneficial and yet little research has examined its effects in practice. In this paper we highlight a number of perverse effects of transparency in practice.

Resurgent Professionalism? Partnership and Professionalism in Global Law Firms

by John Flood

published in REDIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF EXPERT LABOUR, S. Ackroyd, G.D. Muzio, J.F. Chanlet, eds., Palgrave, 2008

The industrialization of legal practice is leading to an increased tension between professionalism and business as... more The industrialization of legal practice is leading to an increased tension between professionalism and business as varieties of the prevailing ethos in large law firms. Using historical and biographical data of law firms this tension is examined with the result that professionalism is, on the legal profession's own terms, dying out. Only in rare niche, smaller firms can residues of professionalism be located.

The Tension between Professional Control and Open Participation: Journalism and its Boundaries

by Seth Lewis

Lewis, S. C. (in press). The Tension between Professional Control and Open Participation: Journalism and its Boundaries. Information, Communication & Society. (Expected publication date: 2012)

Amid growing difficulties for professionals generally, media workers in particular are negotiating the increasingly... more Amid growing difficulties for professionals generally, media workers in particular are negotiating the increasingly contested boundary space between producer and user in the digital environment. This article, based on a review of the academic literature, explores that larger tension transforming the creative industries by extrapolating from the case of journalism—namely, the ongoing tension between professional control and open participation in the news process. Firstly, the sociology of professions, with its emphasis on boundary maintenance, is used to examine journalism as boundary work, profession, and ideology—each contributing to the formation of journalism’s professional logic of control over content. Secondly, by considering the affordances and cultures of digital technologies, the article articulates open participation and its ideology. Thirdly, and against this backdrop of ideological incompatibility, a review of empirical literature finds that journalists have struggled to reconcile this key tension, caught in the professional impulse toward one-way publishing control even as media become a multi-way network. Yet, emerging research also suggests the possibility of a hybrid logic of adaptability and openness—an ethic of participation—emerging to resolve this tension going forward. The article concludes by pointing to innovations in analytical frameworks and research methods that may shed new light on the producer–user tension in journalism.

La liberté de la presse et l'identité des journalistes au Brésil

by Kenia Maia

PEREIRA, F. H. ; MAIA, K. . La liberté de la presse et l identité des journalistes au Brésil. In: Actes du Colloque Les journalismes : réalités plurielles, éthique commune ?, 2010.

ESCRITA E REESCRITA DA HISTÓRIA DO OMBUDSMAN DE IMPRENSA

by Kenia Maia

O ombudsman na Folha de S. Paulo: entre a crítica da mídia e as reclamações dos leitores

by Kenia Maia

MAIA, K. . O ombudsman na Folha de S. Paulo: entre a crítica da mídia e as reclamações dos leitores. In: IV SBPJor, 2006, Porto Alegre. Anais do IV SBPJor, 2006.

No momento de implantação do cargo, o ombudsman da Folha de S. Paulo foi proposto como uma prova pública do projeto... more No momento de implantação do cargo, o ombudsman da Folha de S. Paulo foi proposto como uma prova pública do projeto editorial do jornal e um diferenciador da concorrência. As atribuições da função são cindidas: de um lado, ele procede à avaliação do tratamento da informação durante a semana transcorrida; de outro, ele se coloca a serviço dos leitores, a fim de defender seus direitos. Esses aspectos iniciais da função repercutirão nas características do ombudsman da Folha, nos seus quase trinta anos de existência.

A modelização e o discurso de legitimação profissional do ombudsman de imprensa

by Kenia Maia

MAIA, K. . A modelização e o discurso de legitimação profissional do ombudsman de imprensa. Estudos em Jornalismo e Mídia (UFSC), Florianópolis, v. 1, n. 2, p. 101-115, 2004.

Inspired by the sociology of the professions, this paper examines the ombudsman’s function as a new profession and its... more Inspired by the sociology of the professions, this paper examines the ombudsman’s function as a new profession and its development as a group representative that values autonomy. The ombudsman’s legitimacy and justification are centered on a paradigm, on the representation of an ideal, and on a split discourse aimed at an internal and an external audience.

Este trabalho se propõe a examinar a função de ombudsman de imprensa à luz da sociologia das profissões e a analisar a ouvidoria de imprensa como um agrupamento profissional em formação, que, para se afirmar, precisa desenvolver um importante trabalho de convicção sobre o interesse do agrupamento, no qual a enumeração e a caracterização de dispositivos de autonomia do ombudsman fundam a representação paradigmática do ombudsman. A retórica de legitimação e de justificação da função de ombudsman de imprensa se centra no modelo paradigmático, na representação ideal, e na divergência entre o discurso voltado para o público interno e o discurso voltado para o público externo.

Médiateur de presse : un métier en quête de légitimité professionnelle

by Kenia Maia

MAIA, K. . Médiateur de presse : un métier en quête de légitimité professionnelle. Les Cahiers du Journalisme, Laval (Canadá), v. 13, p. 292-305, 2004.

Plurale Wirklichkeitskonstruktionen als Eckwerte von Dissens und Konsens

by Andreas Metzner-Szigeth

in: Petsche, Hans-Joachim (Ed.): Topoi der Rationalität: Technizität – Medialität - Kulturalität, Berlin (Trafo) 2010, pp. 73-88

Um die Bedingungen der Möglichkeit von Rationalität gegenüber Risiken zu diskutieren, soll hier untersucht werden,... more Um die Bedingungen der Möglichkeit von Rationalität gegenüber Risiken zu diskutieren, soll hier untersucht werden, welche Rolle differente Wertorientierungen und distinkte Wirklichkeitskonstruktionen als Gründe von Dissens spielen. Überwiegend werden kulturelle Werte als das Agens angesehen, welches die Gesellschaft im Kern zusammenhält. Wenn das stimmt, gilt dies auch für die moderne Gesellschaft. So gesehen ist die Frage zu stellen, ob in dieser ein grundlegender Wertekonsens, als Voraussetzung und Folge des Bestehens einer Zivilgesellschaft, noch vorhanden oder bereits erodiert ist? Das Teilen einer gemeinsamen Wirklichkeit, in der man zusammen lebt, stellt aber eine zumindest ebenso basale Konstruktionsleistung jeder Gesellschaft dar, um einen einheitlichen Handlungsraum herzustellen, eine Bedeutungswelt, die sicherstellt, dass man sich verstehen kann, miteinander kooperieren kann, wenn man miteinander kommuniziert und interagiert. Das Medium, innerhalb dessen diese Konstruktionsleistung erbracht wird, sind Diskurse, die Erfahrungen und Vorstellungen, Wünschbares und Machbares ordnen. In diesem Zusammenhang stellt sich daher eine weitergehende Frage: Haben sich die Lebens und Arbeitswirklichkeiten der modernen Gesellschaft schon so weit voneinander entfernt, dass elementare Voraussetzungen des Miteinander-Kommunizierens nicht mehr gewährleistet sind? Da Wirklichkeitswahrnehmungen Konsequenzen haben, Folgen nach sich ziehen, insofern durch unseren handelnden Umgang mit Realität, der durch diese Wahrnehmungen geleitet wird, Realität verändert wird, wird es bestandskritisch, wenn kein Minimalkonsens in der Gesellschaft mehr herstellbar ist, darüber, was Wirklichkeit in einem elementaren Sinne bedeutet. Dieser kleinste gemeinsame Nenner war, als herrschender Konsens der modernen Gesellschaft im Sinne einer Entwicklungsperspektive, bisher an der Idee des Fortschritts und der (naturwissenschaftlichen) Objektivität orientiert. Der Glaube an deren uneingeschränkte Geltung scheint nun brüchig geworden zu sein, ohne dass man aber sagen könnte, es habe sich abseits 'postmoderner' Diffusitäten schon ein neuer 'Geist' verbunden mit einer neuen 'Ratio' herauskristallisiert.

Holography: From science to subcultures

by Sean Johnston

Holography has time and again been reconceived and retargeted by an unusually diverse succession of users with... more Holography has time and again been reconceived and retargeted by an unusually diverse succession of users with divergent perceptions, methods and goals. Two of the earliest and most dissimilar communities had origins in classified research and the counterculture movement.

Making the invisible engineer visible: DuPont and the recognition of nuclear expertise

by Sean Johnston

Between 1942 and the late 1950s, atomic piles (nuclear chain-reactors) were industrialized, initially to generate... more Between 1942 and the late 1950s, atomic piles (nuclear chain-reactors) were industrialized, initially to generate plutonium for the first atomic weapons and later to serve as copious sources of neutrons, radioisotopes and electrical power. These facilities entrained a new breed of engineering specialist adept at designing, operating and maintaining them. From the beginning, large companies supplied the engineering labor for this new technology, and played an important role in defining the nature of their nuclear expertise. In the USA, the most influential company of the period was DuPont, which assumed responsibility for the first plutonium production reactors at Oak Ridge TN and Hanford WA between 1942-6, and of the postwar production facilities at Savannah River SC 1950-87. This paper explores the transition of authority from so-called “atomic scientists” to nuclear engineers at these sites, and the role played by DuPont in consolidating this new technical profession.

Professional identity and organisation in a technical occupation: The emergence of chemical engineering in Britain, c. 1915–-30

by Sean Johnston

Colin Divall, James F. Donelly and Sean F. Johnston

The emergence in Britain of chemical engineering, by mid century the fourth largest engineering specialism, was a... more The emergence in Britain of chemical engineering, by mid century the fourth largest engineering specialism, was a hesitant and long drawn out process. This article analyses the organisational politics behind the recognition of the technical occupation and profession from the First World War through to the end of the 1920s. The collective sense of professional identity among nascent 'chemical engineers' developed rapidly during this time owing to associations which promoted their cause among potential patrons.

Implanting a Discipline: The Academic Trajectory of Nuclear Engineering in the USA and UK

by Sean Johnston

The nuclear engineer emerged as a new form of recognised technical professional between 1940 and the early 1960s as... more The nuclear engineer emerged as a new form of recognised technical professional between 1940 and the early 1960s as nuclear fission, the chain reaction and their applications were explored. The institutionalization of nuclear engineering channelled into new national laboratories and corporate design offices during the decade after the war, and hurried into academic venues thereafter proved unusually dependent on government definition and support. This paper contrasts the distinct histories of the new discipline in the USA and UK (and, more briefly, Canada). In the segregated and influential environments of institutional laboratories and factories, historical actors such as physicist Walter Zinn in the USA and industrial chemist Christopher Hinton in the UK proved influential in shaping the roles and perceptions of nuclear specialists. More broadly, I argue that the State-managed implantation of the new subject within further and higher education curricula was shaped strongly by distinct political and economic contexts in which secrecy, postwar prestige and differing industrial cultures were decisive factors.

Policy and profession: elite perspectives on redefining general practice in Australia and England

by Jenny Lewis

Published in: Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 2002, 7(Suppl 1) S1: 8-13.

From Journalism to Information: The Transformation of the Knight Foundation and News Innovation

by Seth Lewis

Lewis, S. C. (2012). From Journalism to Information: The Transformation of the Knight Foundation and News Innovation. Mass Communication & Society. (forthcoming)

Amid the digital disruption for journalism, the U.S.-based Knight Foundation has made a highly publicized effort to... more Amid the digital disruption for journalism, the U.S.-based Knight Foundation has made a highly publicized effort to shape the nature of news innovation. This growing influence raises questions about what it’s trying to accomplish, for mass communication and society. This qualitative case study shows how and why the Knight Foundation has sought to change journalism by renegotiating its boundaries. Namely, by downplaying its own historical emphasis on professionalism, the foundation has embraced openness to outside influence—e.g., the wisdom of the crowd, citizen participation, and a broader definition of “news.” These rhetorical adaptations have paralleled material changes in the foundation’s funding process, typified by the Knight News Challenge innovation contest. In recent times, the foundation has undergone a further evolution from “journalism” to “information.” By highlighting its boundary-spanning interest in promoting “information” for communities, the Knight Foundation has been able to expand its capital and influence as an agent of change among fields and funders beyond journalism.

Recognition and weak ties. Is there a positive effect of postdoctoral positions in academic performance and career development?

by Ana Fernandez Zubieta

Research Evaluation, 18, 2, pp. 105-115

This article analyses the effect of researchers’ postdoctoral mobility on academic performance. Postdoctoral positions... more This article analyses the effect of researchers’ postdoctoral mobility on academic performance. Postdoctoral positions are considered and conceptualised as a special type of researcher mobility. We use the curriculum vitae of UK academic scientists as a source of information, in addition to the ISI Web of Knowledge and the European Patent Office. We find major differences in the patterns of mobility between the pure and the transfer sciences. Pure scientists tend to move via a postdoctoral appointment, whereas transfer scientists tend to change job positions.
We find that international postdoctoral mobility is positively correlated with publications for non job-mobile pure scientists in a five-year period starting two years after completion of the PhD, and with the total number of citations. The explanation is that weak institutional ties connected with postdoctoral fellowships give researchers access to institutions with higher reputation, which in turn gives access to valuable knowledge and networks. This institutional advantage means that international postdoctoral mobility has a positive influence on academic performance. The lack of significance of the correlation between precocity and international postdoctoral mobility makes it impossible to determine whether international postdoctoral mobility is a non-early advantage with positive effects on a scientist’s productivity and career development.