Inequalities, marginality and the professions

Abstract

Professional ideologies generally commit to addressing inequalities among clients and/or the public as part of their altruistic ethos. Sociologists of professions in the Anglo-American context have written on the extent to which this commitment is honoured by professional groups, either in a positive or more critical light. This article, however, argues that professions cannot be conceptualised as equal, homogeneous entities and are best seen as hierarchically differentiated groups based on varying forms of exclusionary social closure. As such, it reviews the literature on inequalities between professional groups from a neo-Weberian approach – which is favoured over other perspectives – through the concept of marginality, primarily using the illustrative context of health care. With particular reference to the case of complementary and alternative medicine, the article highlights that future research needs to focus more on how positions of marginality influence inequalities beyond the professions – in other words, on how inequalities within professions affect inequalities without.