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Professions and Professionals in Times of Change and Complexity. Part I
Professions and Professionals in Times of Change and Complexity. Part I
Sunday, 10 July 2016: 10:45-12:15
Location: Hörsaal 6A P (Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG))
RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups (host committee) Language: English
Despite the recent developments in the fields of professions and organizations much controversy remains concerning professionals’ actions and performance of their roles. As a result, the studies do not converge about whether professionals’ identity and strategies are increasingly shaped by entrepreneurial values, or whether professionals continue to employ individual and group strategies to safeguard their objectives and to keep their autonomy protected.
Additionally, the branches of social theory built on dispositions (Bourdieu or Lahire) and reflexivity (Archer) applied to the world of professions somehow have balanced the overweight of structural dimensions as professionals’ action is increasingly theorized as not determined nor necessarily guided by shared professional values and ideologies. According to these actor-based perspectives, professionals are as subjected to as they make conscious and reflexive use of institutional conditions in performing their roles against individual interests and context-dependent experiences.
In sum, the evidence is still unclear the institutional-behavioral linkage in professionals’ actions and performance of professional roles. The issue is highly sensitive particularly in the context of growing managerial rationale.
This session invites both theoretical and empirical submissions addressing this topic regardless of the theoretical background and methodological approach. Key for submissions is focusing on issues related to the construction of professional rationales and the performance of work against broad influences whether they are professional, economic, political or managerial.
Session Organizer:
Chair: