Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

A profession is a prestigious white-collar occupation that is based on theoretical and practical knowledge and training in a particular field, such as medicine. The specialized knowledge and the restricted practice is regulated by a central body of the profession to ensure the quality and the ethical conduct of its members. These characteristics separate the profession from an occupation which is a specific type of work done in the market. For example, caring is work done both outside and inside the labor market. In the latter case it is a collective activity organized as various health occupations. Sociologists differ in their views concerning the power of the professions, the character of health occupations, and on the division of labor in medicine. The theoretical heritage of the sociology of health professions and occupations derives from a normative approach. Émile Durkheim saw professions as moral occupational communities in the new moral order and division of labor of the urban and industrial society. Based on this notion, Talcott Parsons (1951) defined professions in relation to a specific normative value system: the pattern variables. He viewed professions as occupational groups that had a special autonomy from the emerging bureaucracies of the modern society as depicted by Max Weber. Special autonomy, knowledge and a service ideal towards clients were the three characteristics ... log in or subscribe to read full text