Eroding ‘Respectability’: Deprofessionalization Through Organizational Spaces

an article by Sabina Siebert (University of Glasgow, UK) and Stacey Bushfield, Graeme Martin and Brian Howieson (University of Dundee, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 32 Issue 2 (April 2018)

Abstract

This article addresses the question – can a deterioration in organizational spaces erode a profession’s status?

It draws on the organizational spaces literature to analyse the relationship between design of the physical work setting and senior doctors’ experiences of deprofessionalization. Analysis of qualitative data from a study of senior hospital doctors identifies two main themes that link the experience of spaces with perceptions of the erosion of professional status and reduced knowledge sharing.

These two themes are:

• emplacement, which is the application of coercive power both in and through spatial arrangements; and
• isolation, which refers to physical alienation in the workplace leading to disconnection and a perceived loss of power.

Observing the changes in the physical environment over time and mapping them against these processes of deprofessionalization offers interesting new insights into the sociology of professions.

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Breaking the ‘class’ ceiling? Social mobility into Britain's elite occupations

an article by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison (London School of Economics and Political Science) and Andrew Miles (University of Manchester) published in The Sociological Review Volume 63 Issue 2 (May 2015)

Abstract

In this paper we use the unusually large sample size of the Great British Class Survey to compare rates of social mobility into different élite occupations. We find a distinction between ‘traditional’ professions, such as law, medicine and finance, which are dominated by the children of higher managers and professionals, and technical or emerging high-status occupations, particularly those related to IT, that appear to recruit more widely.

Second, we find that even when the upwardly mobile are successful in entering élite occupations they invariably fail to accumulate the same economic, cultural and social capital as those from privileged backgrounds.

While many such differences may be explained by inheritance, we also find that the mobile tend to have considerably lower incomes. Investigating this further we demonstrate that even when controlling for important variables such as schooling, education, location, age, and cultural and social capital, the upwardly mobile in eight occupations – located largely in the business sector – have considerably lower incomes than their higher-origin colleagues.

These findings underline the value of analyses of mobility into specific high-status occupations as well as illustrating how, beyond entry, the mobile often face considerable disadvantage within occupations.

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Managing for local resilience: towards a strategic approach

an article by Keith Shaw (Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK) published in Public Policy and Administration Volume 28 Number 1 (January 2013)

Abstract

The term resilience is increasingly being used to capture the challenges involved in managing in ‘hard times’.

This article aims to provide one of the first empirical studies of the term’s application to local authority interventions around emergency planning and climate change: two areas in which resilience has been particularly emphasised in local policy making.

Drawing upon research undertaken in the north east of England, the article considers how local managers have understood and applied the term, the extent to which it has been developed as a coherent policy agenda, and its strategic significance.

In reframing the debate on resilience in terms of discourses of ‘recovery’ and ‘transformation’, the article examines how, in addition to informing policy realities on the ground, resilience is also a normative, politically laden term, within which conservative narratives of uncertainty, vulnerability and anxiety compete with a more radical focus on hope, adaptation and transformation.

The study reveals concerns over the term’s longevity, tensions between the different interpretations of resilience, and the lack of a coherent strategic framework within which the different discourses on resilience could be considered and reconciled.

However, the article also captures the growing importance of a resilience narrative that is seen to add value in a period of austerity, integrate key features of climate change adaptation and emergency planning, and act as a ‘strategic lynchpin’ in relation to other policy areas, such as economic resilience.

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Proposal for modernising the Professional Qualifications Directive

The Commission has adopted a legislative proposal for modernising Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications.

The proposal aims at simplifying rules for the mobility of professionals within the EU. It is essential to enabling professionals to start a new business or to find a job in another Member State requiring a specific qualification for a specific professional activity.

Key elements of the proposal are:

• The introduction of a European professional card
• Better access to information on the recognition of professional qualifications
• Updating minimum training requirements for doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, veterinary surgeons and architects
• The introduction of an alert mechanism for health professionals benefiting from automatic recognition
• The introduction of common training frameworks and common training tests
• Mutual evaluation exercise on regulated professions

Links

• Proposal for modernising the Professional Qualifications Directive (PDF 65pp)
• Frequently Asked Questions HTML
• Press release

via cedefop: European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training

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