Abstract
Functionalist scholars have long regarded health service professions as enjoying special privileges because of their pivotal societal function: quality care of citizens. Fusion of service ethic and technical expertise grants service professions monopoly over possession and transmission of knowledge, autonomy to organize working conditions to their own choosing, and authority over clients and allied occupational groups. Many sociologists remain critical of this functionalist position, however, maintaining that it presents an idealized picture of practising professionals who, for reasons internal or external to themselves, fail to realize their avowed service goal. In this paper I delineate three competing approaches in the post-functionalist debate on service professions - professional dominance, professional decline and patriarchal control. I use an age-old kind of service work, midwifery, to uncover theoretical shortcomings in the various stances profiled. In the third section of the paper, I blend interactionist and state perspectives to conceptualize primary and secondary data on midwives
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
