Professional Closure Beyond State Authorization

Gitte Sommer Harrits

doi:10.7577/pp.567

Abstract

For decades, the Weberian approach to the study of professions has been strong, emphasizing state authorization and market monopolies as constituting what is considered a profession. Originally, however, the Weberian conception of closure, or the ways in which a profession is constituted and made separate, was broader. This article suggests a revision of the closure concept, integrating insights from Pierre Bourdieu, and conceptualizing professional closure as the intersection of social, symbolic and legal closure. Based on this revision, this article demonstrates how to apply such a concept in empirical studies. This is done by exploring social, symbolic and legal closure across sixteen professional degree programs. The analyses show a tendency for some overlap between different forms of closure, with a somewhat divergent pattern for legal closure. Results support the argument that we need to study these processes as an intersection of different sources of closure, including capital, lifestyles and discourse

Highlights

The Weberian approach to the study of professions has been strong, emphasizing state authorization and market monopolies as constituting what is considered a profession
At the root of this approach is a revision of the concept of social closure, a key concept within professional studies over the last 30 years (e.g. Parkin, 1979; Collins, 1979; Murphy, 1984, 1988; Larson, 1977)
The analyses have demonstrated a somewhat strong homology of both social and symbolic closure, or the concentration of economic and cultural capital as well as different lifestyle traits, among journalists as well as the academic www.professionsandprofessionalism.com professions

Summary

Introduction

The Weberian approach to the study of professions has been strong, emphasizing state authorization and market monopolies as constituting what is considered a profession. This article suggests a revision of the closure concept, integrating insights from Pierre Bourdieu, and conceptualizing professional closure as the intersection of social, symbolic and legal closure. Based on this revision, this article demonstrates how to apply such a concept in empirical studies. This article demonstrates how to apply such a concept in empirical studies This is done by exploring social, symbolic and legal closure across sixteen professional degree programs. The study indicates that we need to look much more closely at processes of professional social closure, moving beyond considering only strategic achievement of state authorization to include different sources, intersections and overlaps of power and knowledge. The cognitive aspect remains dominant, since knowledge will, in the long run, determine the boundaries within which strategies of power can play out (Brante, 2010, p. 866)

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