@article{Saks_2012, title={Defining a Profession: The Role of Knowledge and Expertise}, volume={2}, url={https://journals.oslomet.no/index.php/pp/article/view/151}, DOI={10.7577/pp.v2i1.151}, abstractNote={<p>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.</p>}, number={1}, journal={Professions and Professionalism}, author={Saks, Mike}, year={2012}, month={Jun.} }