Defining a Profession: The Role of Knowledge and Expertise

Authors

  • Mike Saks University Campus Suffolk, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.v2i1.151

Abstract

The paper highlights the importance of resurrecting the debate about how to define a profession. The drive to define a profession is traced back to the taxonomic approach – encompassing the work of trait and functionalist writers – in which professions were seen as possessing unique and positive characteristics, including distinctive knowledge and expertise. A range of critical challenges to this approach are then considered, particularly as they relate to the role of knowledge and expertise in defining a profession, covering interactionism, Marxism, Foucauldianism and discourse analysis. However, the most effective challenge to the taxonomic approach is considered to be the neo-Weberian perspective based on a less broadly assumptive and more analytically useful definition of a profession centered on exclusionary closure. With reference to case studies, the relative merits of neo-Weberianism compared to taxonomic and other approaches are examined in relation to the role of knowledge and expertise and delineating professional boundaries.

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Author Biography

Mike Saks, University Campus Suffolk, UK

Provost and Chief Executive

University Campus Suffolk, UK

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Published

2012-06-21

How to Cite

Saks, M. (2012). Defining a Profession: The Role of Knowledge and Expertise. Professions and Professionalism, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.v2i1.151

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Articles

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