Across the UK and industrialised West, corporate law and medicine have diversified according to gender, yet their power has moved in opposite directions. This article asks what difference diversification makes to professions and the forms of power they exercise, with diversification defined here primarily as the increased representation of women and thus quantitative change. While mainstream accounts emphasise a ‘business case’ for diversity, which is expected to deliver organisational benefits such as productivity and performance, research on occupational segregation shows that demographic shifts can reduce occupational status even when outcomes remain equal. This paper brings related theories into dialogue with the sociology of the professions, using corporate law and medicine to argue that the effects of diversification vary by alignment: market-aligned law assimilates diversity as managed legitimacy to maintain power and hierarchy, while state-aligned medicine interprets or constructs feminisation as devaluation under audit and austerity. The paper advances a framework for understanding when diversity legitimises, destabilises, or enhances professions’ capacity to serve the public good.

This paper compares the status and qualities of different forms of expertise and distinguishes them from non-knowledge. It contrasts professional and scientific expertise with a less institutionalised and credentialed but increasingly prominent form: practical, experience-based “lay” or “citizen” expertise. Drawing on social studies of knowledge, expertise, science and the professions, the paper asks when expertise claims are reliable and how the value of experience-based claims can be assessed. Expertise is conceptualized pragmatically as specialized knowledge that provides orientation to others. While different forms of expertise may be provided by different actors, conveyed through different means and relevant in different contexts, they respond to shared validity standards: authoritative claims must be non-ubiquitous, problem-relevant, and advanced by trustworthy, impartial speakers with specialized capabilities. However, these standards must be translated into context- and knowledge-specific indicators. Assessing experience-based expertise is particularly challenging because conventional markers of epistemic authority are absent. The paper discusses two responses that build on professionalising, processing and certifying lay expertise, thereby partially transforming its character.

This article explains professional misconduct through a boundary-centred ecological perspective. Although professions have historically justified their status and labour market privileges through social trusteeship and public service claims, numerous scandals—from Enron and Parmalat to the financial crisis and the opioid epidemic—reveal systematic failures of professional gatekeepers. I argue that these failures arise when boundaries within and around the system of professions are poorly designed or managed, particularly by being too weak, too strong, or too uncertain. These conditions generate mechanisms such as capture, conflicts of interest, collective myopia, double deontology, and regulatory arbitrage, leading to an increased likelihood of professional failure and misconduct. Contemporary trends such as globalisation, commercialisation, and technological change further destabilise traditional arrangements. The article concludes by advocating a configurational approach to boundary design to strengthen contemporary professional regulation.

The significance of theoretical knowledge for professional practice is widely acknowledged, but how students in professional education construct meanings of their major subject remains understudied. This study examined how primary student teachers reflect on the role of educational science in their professional knowledge. Textual data were collected after their first practicum in a Finnish primary teacher education programme. Discourse analysis identified four discourses. In the discourse of depth, educational science enabled a thorough understanding of pupils. In the discourse of multifacetedness, simultaneous consideration of multiple aspects of teaching was evident. In the discourse of topicality, teachers could stay updated regarding the knowledge society through educational science. The discourse of systemicity underscored the contribution of educational science to societal progress. This study provides a better understanding of student teachers’ professional knowledge in curriculum development and programme design within teacher education.

This study compares the working conditions and turnover intentions of professionals in Norwegian residential child protection institutions across public, for‑profit, and non‑profit ownership, using survey data from 870 professionals. Apart from work-family balance, professionals in for‑profit institutions report less favourable conditions across key risk dimensions—notably, weaker collegial support, lower‑quality professional leadership, and greater work pressure. Turnover intentions are significantly higher in for‑profit institutions, which is largely attributed to a more limited scope for professionalism. These findings are discussed in light of institutional theory. In sectors where organisations compete for users, investment in professional expertise may be a strategy to enhance attractiveness. By contrast, in contexts where users are allocated providers, as in residential child protection, competition for public contracts may incentivise cost-cutting, flexible staffing, and selective bids for target groups that place particular demands on staff—dynamics that potentially heighten work pressures while reducing investment in professional competence.

High school teachers’ professional commitment and passion are about being dedicated and unwavering in their pursuit of teaching excellence. This study aims to explore the antecedents of Norwegian high school teachers’ professional passion. We investigated three factors—relational trust, teachers’ affective commitment to the school organisation, and teachers’ instructional self-efficacy—by conducting a survey of 246 Norwegian high school teachers and using structural equation modelling. Our findings reveal a positive relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and teachers’ professional passion, as well as a positive relationship between trust among teachers and their passion. Further, affective commitment to the school organisation is indirectly related to teacher passion via relational trust between teachers. We thus conclude that both teacher efficacy and trust between teachers are directly related to teachers’ passion, while teachers’ affective commitment to the school is indirectly related via relational trust. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.