Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Over the past 30 years, sociologists have debated the state and future of the health professions. While the theoretical discussion in the 1960s was characterized by a belief in the future of powerful professions, the debate in the field since the mid-1980s has predicted the demise of such groups. It has even been argued that the distinction between health professions and occupations is an artifact of the vocabulary of sociologists. In fact some languages, such as French, make no distinction between a profession and an occupation and have but one word for both concepts.Here the theoretical discussion in the field of the past decades is reviewed. First, the classics that focused on the medical profession are described, followed by an overview of the theoretical reinvigoration of the field that took place during the ten-year period between about 1975 and 1985. Finally, the main strands of research on health professions and occupations in the 1990s are presented.The sociology of professions is a rather narrow field of research despite its vast literature. It covers economic restructuring and changes in knowledge and service delivery by trained experts. There is a clearly identifiable scholarly debate in the field. In fact, few other fields in sociology present such a linear development of the theoretical discussion as in the sociology of the professions. Each decade has been characterized ... log in or subscribe to read full text