Professionalization: The Mystery of Boundaries
Résumé
The central challenge of professionalization lies in this “more or less”, which qualifies the consistency, recognition, coalescence, identity, legitimacy of these groups, constituted around (more or less) specialized and identified activities in the division of labor. It is this thread of boundaries that we will explore throughout the chapter, less to interrogate the delimitation of what a profession is than to provide information on what constitutes a profession: the very process of differentiation of work activities, their specialization, their affirmation and their recomposition. Whether we go through the analysis of work and concrete activities or we study political enterprises striving to conquer a professional territory, the goal is not to distinguish between categories of activities, but rather to inform the processes of professional categorization. How do activities emerge, how are they constituted, how do they differentiate themselves, how do they acquire recognition? How are boundaries asserted, moved, weakened, crossed, how do they disappear, etc.?
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et SociétéOrigine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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