RC52 ‘Professional Groups’
Call for Papers
ISA RC52 Interim Conference
Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, 28-30 November 2013
Local Organisers: Helena Serra and Tiago Correia
Challenging Professionalism:
New directions in Policies, Publics and the Professions
Professionalism in contemporary societies is facing many challenges that may create
substantive transformations in the professions and their relationships with the state, the
market and the management as well as the clients and citizens. Major challenges are arising
from the global economic crisis and the ways in which governments are restructuring (or
forced to do so) their public sectors and the concept of citizenship. While public sector
services as key area of professional work face overall cuts, thus creating potentially negative
effects for professional work and development, other areas may even face expansion and
new chances, like the emergent areas of enterprising professionalism furthered by
privatisation and new managerial regimes. Ironically, the new challenges of professions may
foster professionalism as part of changing policies and governance practices especially in
times of crises, because of the high levels of trust that professions enjoy and their unique
capacity to buffer social conflict and manage the provision of essential services for the
citizens. Yet this capacity may vary between professional groups, countries and globally, and
the contemporary challenges may therefore create variety and even contradictions in the
transformations of professions.
We invite papers that explore these developments in comparative perspective or in a single
country or professional group. Next to an open Call for Papers, a number of thematic
sessions are also proposed; please clearly indicate your session preference and choose
either the open call session(s) or one of the thematic sessions (see the list below).
Please submit your abstract by email to: [email protected] with a copy to
[email protected]; [email protected]; deadline is 31 May 2013. Abstracts must be
submitted as an email attachment in the format of a word file and must be prepared in the
following style: preferred session; title of the paper; name of author(s), institutional affiliation
and email address; followed by an abstract of no more than 200 words. Please note:
abstracts that do not follow these guidelines cannot be considered.
A decision on acceptance (or otherwise) will be made in close consultation with the session
organisers; authors will be informed on the status of their abstract no later than 30 June
2013.
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List of Sessions
Session 1 – (Open Call) Challenging professionalism: new directions in politics,
publics and the professions (see the Call for Papers for this Interim Conference)
Organisers: Helena Serra and Tiago Correia (Portugal)
Session 2 – Professions, challenge and the public interest
Organiser: Mike Saks (UK)
Professions are classically seen in sociological theory as bodies that subordinate their own
interests to the public interest – indeed this has typically for long been a pivotal part of their
own professional ideologies. This concept has been criticised by a range of contemporary
social theorists as an inappropriate depiction of the operation of professional groups in more
recent decades. This session explores how far and in what ways, if any, professions in
contemporary society with all its economic and other challenges can now be seen to act
altruistically as a buffer between citizens and the state in protecting the wider public. Papers
are invited that may be based on a single society and/or profession or may be more global in
scope. They may also variously consider empirical, theoretical and/or methodological
dimensions of the relationship between professional groups, self-interests and the public
interest in the modern world.
Session 3 – Self-employed professionals in Europe
Organisers: Emmanuele Pavolini (Italy) and Lara Maestripieri (Italy)
Traditionally considered the standard model by which professional activities are carried out,
self-employment is interesting increasing share of knowledge workers. The dimensions of
autonomy, creativity and entrepreneurship that characterize freelance activities mirror the
exigencies of independence and self-realization of professionals, so that sociologists have
pointed out professionalism as opposed to bureaucracy and organisations. However, the
transformation of post-industrial societies has not always coincided with the transformation in
the public regulation: especially in those countries that assume corporatist principles in
governing professional employment, there are increasing divergences among professionals
that depends from the type of acknowledgement given by the State. For activities of recent
professionalization, it means a reduced protection in terms of welfare and market regulation.
In this session, we welcome theoretical and empirical papers that address the issue of selfemployment within professional groups, especially looking at the different capacity of
professional groups in obtaining favourable policies and new form of governance practices.
Session 4 – The interplay between professions and organizations in a changing world
Organisers: Tiago Correia (Portugal) and Helena Serra (Portugal)
Global trends such as the globalization, technology innovation and neo-liberal ideologies
and policies are similarly shaping the world of professions and organizations. For instance, it
has been suggested that professions are adopting more managed patterns. Yet the
consequences are to be fully understood, not only because they challenge traditional notions
of the professionalism and professional dominance towards the gradual influence of
entrepreneurship, but also because studies still lack a proper understanding of how those
blurred boundaries are affecting professionals’ daily activities. Even though professions and
organizations have been explored jointly for the last decades, knowledge is still limited about
several aspects linking each other. Against this background we invite papers furthering the
interface between sociology of professions and organization studies. Possible but not
exhaustive topic list: (1) the managerial project of organizations and professionalism; (2)
professional self-regulation and organizational regulation; (3) the relationship between
organization (sub-)cultures and professions; and (4) professionals’ action as part of complex
organizations.
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Session 5 – New professionalism – new ethics?
Organiser: Christiane Schnell (Germany)
The session addresses the question if and how the transformations professions experience
in contemporary societies affects the concept and reality of professional ethics. For a long
time the discussion of professional ethics was structured by the opposition of functionalism
and the power approach. Today the role of professions as trustees of the public interest and
their endeavours to exploit the image of altruism and ethical responsibility in their own
interest are much more understood as two sides of the same coin. But how relevant are
professional ethics in the face of deeper changes of professions and their relation to society,
market structures, and organizations and also to their clients? Are professions reconstructing
their legitimization on the background of different frameworks and conditions? Is pragmatism
prevailing or are there new paradigms of morality emerging? If the idea of the profession as
a homogeneous collective body is questioned, what do we know about the ethical selfconcept of individual professionals and the moral fragmentation of professional groups?
These and other questions on the topic of professional ethics should be discussed in the
session. Proposals on not or less established occupational groups are welcome in the same
manner as papers on classical professions.
Session 6 – Challenging professionalism in times of professional (de)regulation
Organisers: Raquel Rego (Portugal) and Luísa Veloso (Portugal)
Professionalism has been mobilised by occupational groups as an argument to attain the
status of profession and to ensure the competent and responsible exercise of their activity.
Nevertheless, with the current crisis, we observe forms of deregulating professions and the
terms of labour in more general terms, which may, in turn, challenge professionalism.
Deregulation is perceived by political powers as a possible means of generating growth in
employment and mobility. However, the deregulatory trend may lead professionals to lose
their economic, symbolic and social power, weakening their authority and jeopardizing the
public interest. We invite papers focusing on professional regulation and/or deregulation.
These may approach: the existence of obstacles to the recognition of professional
certification; the pressure wielded by occupational groups with important social impacts; the
increase in managerial authority enabled by neoliberal policies; the role of consumer
complaints in the effectiveness of ethical regulations; among other issues.
Session 7 – Beyond hybridisation: management, professional development and
innovation in healthcare (Joint Session ISA RC52 and FP7 COST action ‘Medicine and
Management’)
Organisers: Ellen Kuhlmann (Germany), Tiago Correia (Portugal), Mike Dent (UK) and Ian
Kirkpatrick (UK)
The healthcare sector is a key arena of new directions in public sector policy that may
challenge professionalism and may even foster a new species of a ‘hybrid professional’. This
session seeks to move the debates into ‘hybridisation’ further and deeper by empirically
investigating the changing relationships between clinical management and health
professional development. We are interested in contributions that explore the processes,
strategies, institutional conditions and key players in the making and remaking of the
professionalism-managerialism relationships in healthcare systems and organisations,
thereby helping us to better understand why this happens, and what are the consequences
of the new modes of governing. This session is linked to an international network on
‘Medicine and Management’ funded by the European Commission FP7 COST action
(http://www.dr-in-mgmt.eu/). We invite contributions from all countries that address the topic
either in comparative perspective or in a single country.
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Session 8 – Technology in mediation between professionals and users: reflections in
health contexts
Organisers: Ana Paula Marques (Portugal) and David Tavares (Portugal)
The Sections of “Work, Organizations and Professions” and “Sociology of Health” of the
Portuguese Association of Sociology are organizing a joint session that aims: a) to debate
the theoretical and conceptual plural approaches concerning technologies in the mediation
of the relationship between diverse professionals and users, individual and collective,
integrating the health sector; b) to provide a common space and time for a broad reflexion,
current and systematized, about the context, process and the on-going transformations in
this field. It will stress issues, namely, technologies and technical applications of diagnostic
treatment and accompaniment (e.g. e-health, telemedicine and virtual collaborative
platforms); policy drivers for organizational and governance restructuring; the demand for
knowledge, skill-mix and changes regarding curricula, professions and employability profiles;
the forms of relationships by users with technological mediation in the therapeutic context.
Session 9 – Professional knowledge and competence
Organiser: Jens-Christian Smeby (Norway)
One of the key characteristics of professions is that they are knowledge based occupational
groups. Professional education and continuous professional development is, therefore, an
essential element of professionalism. Practical and tacit knowledge composes key elements
of professional competence. At the same time there is a growing contestability of knowledge
claims. The self-legitimation of the older knowledge elites becomes less certain and new
occupational groups raise jurisdictional claims. Professionals need knowledge as a basis for
carrying out their tasks, but they also have to a much greater extent to defend their
professional practice towards other professional groups as well as the lay audience. As
emphasised by Abbott, theoretical knowledge tend to be less practical than symbolic. The
session addresses three main issues: (1) the role of theoretical and practical knowledge in
professional practice and jurisdictional claims; (2) the development of professional
competence in education and work; and (4) academisation of professional education in the
newer professions.
Session 10 - The future is now: the contribution of young researchers to the sociology
of professional groups
Organiser: Manuel Abrantes (Portugal)
The growth of every field of research depends on its ability to integrate new individuals,
topics, questions, perspectives, and methodologies. This is increasingly relevant in the case
of work and professions as times of economic crisis pose new challenges to both academic
and public debates. However, early career researchers and PhD students are confronted
with the hard task of bringing their own work into debates that have been developing for
decades. This session aims at convening a number of young speakers in such situation. It
offers them a privileged time and place to present their research findings, practical or
theoretical problems, and contributions to discuss the future of the sociology of professional
groups. Any topic within this field of study is welcome. Papers may be chiefly theoretical,
methodological, or empirical. Attention will be paid to shared or emerging concerns among
young researchers, as well as novel or experimental techniques used in their work.
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