XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

865

Power: Exclusions and Interventions in the Professions and Professional Labour Markets

RC52 Sociology of Professional Groups (host committee)

Language: English

The professional project has often been about the marking out of certain occupations for particular groups.  On the one hand these markers, based on qualifications, training or membership of a professional body, are obvious.  But on the other hand the markers are more subtle with various social identities - race, gender, ethnicity, class, nationality, citizenship – determining who might be included and who might be excluded.   The way in which power relations structure the broader society and its labour markets (either that of the nation-state or globally) underlie these dynamics.

This session hopes to explore these intersections and examine the ways in which they operate to both include and exclude certain groups in/from professional labour markets; recognising that these are manifestations of broader power relations in the society.  It is particularly interested in papers that examine interventions, by professional associations, states, social movements or other groups (formal or informal) organised on the basis of identity, to broaden access to professional groups and/or labour markets.  This session welcomes both empirical (either in one country/profession or in comparative perspective) and theoretical papers that address any of the above themes.