Expertise Beyond the North: Professions, Knowledge, and Power In the Global South

The sociology of professions emerged with a distinctly Anglo-American orientation. While later research has extended to other regions—most notably continental Europe—the field has largely mirrored global inequalities in knowledge production, remaining focused on national cases from the Global North. This imbalance has constrained both its theoretical reach and empirical richness. Postcolonial perspectives remind us that examining the diverse realities of the Global South not only opens new substantive lines of inquiry but also challenges the “provincial” assumptions embedded in dominant frameworks. Against this backdrop, this session invites contributions that investigate the organization, transformation, and contestation of professional expertise in peripheral contexts. Key questions include: How do inter- and intra-professional competition unfold in these settings? In what ways are professional identities shaped by class, gender, and race? How do established and emerging professions interact, particularly under conditions of technological change? What forms do relations between experts and political regimes take, and how does state intervention influence professional autonomy? Is there something distinctive about the making of professionalism in the Global South? We also seek to explore the role of transnational flows of ideas and practitioners—both North–South and South–South—in shaping expertise. Finally, we ask how globalization and digitalization are reconfiguring professional boundaries and practices in these “other” geographies, and what these transformations reveal about the global division of expert labor.