Theorising Professionalism, Old and New Conceptualisations of Professional Work

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise and contextualise the relationship between the professional, public, and political spheres involved in the creation of new health services and work practices. The paper traces these relationships back through the early works of classical sociologists. The main theme is critically to examine the contributions of sociologists interested in professions, from the Chicago interactionist tradition, including Everett. C. Hughes, Anselm Strauss and Andrew Abbott, to French works of Pierre Bourdieu.

In this paper I argue that the influence from Hughes to Abbott, and between the theories of Abbott and Bourdieu, are well known and evident in concepts of “systems of professions” and that of “champ”. However, the influences from Hughes and Strauss to Abbott and Bourdieu is less explored.

The paper has three sections, first, I present Bourdieu’s recommendation to replace the concept of ‘profession’ from the Chicago schools’ ecological approach with the concept of ‘field’ from Bourdieu’s theory of practice. Second, I explore several essays from the Chicago school, where among others, Hughes Strauss and Abbott are studying professions from an ecological perspective. Third, I discuss some similarities and differences between the ecological approach of the Chicago school scholars and the theory of (social) fields from Bourdieu. Finally, the paper discusses the aspects of these perspectives that may prove useful to the sociology of professions today and what seems to be less relevant.