Politics and the professions in a time of crisis

Abstract

Class analysis has undergone a 'cultural turn' in recent years, driven most notably by the growing influence of the work of Pierre Bourdieu. We seek to connect this perspective with organization studies via an analysis of the political, economic and cultural cleavages that exist within a sample of professionals, managers and executives-summarily, the UK professional class. The results show that significant cleavages exist within the UK professional class in terms of economic and cultural capital composition and political dispositions. However, the most significant differences observable are not related to classic materialist 'left' and 'right' perspectives as recent research elsewhere suggests, but on more epiphenomenal issues such as immigration, equal rights and the environment. In an era where the professions find themselves in crisis (Leicht, 2016), the results imply that professional groups should take politics more seriously and actively articulate how professional expertise can contribute to the common good.

Expert Authority in Crisis: Making Authority Real Through Struggle

“…The narrative calls attention to the ways in which the emerging power and status of "calculative experts" (Mau, 2019, p. 117), or "corporate professionals" (Reed, 2019)-who are "more closely aligned to the market and representing corporate services such as management consultancy, information management and advertising" (Reed, 2018a, p. 222)-have challenged and undermined the expert authority of established elite professional groups in ways that threaten their continuing structural dominance and ideological prestige (Heusinkveld et al, 2018). The number, role, influence, and power of calculative experts/corporate professionals have increased and expanded under the plethora of neoliberal policies, programs, and initiatives that have been promoted and implemented in the leading Anglo-American political economies in recent decades (Brooks, 2018;Brown, 2015;Davies, 2017;Malin, 2020;Spence et al, 2017;Wedel, 2011). In turn, this creates "new domains of colonization and competition" (Heusinkveld et al, 2018) between different professional occupations and generates a much more structurally complex ecology of expert occupational groups.…”

Professions and inequality: Challenges, controversies, and opportunities

“…On the contrary, having delegated key regulatory functions to professions and corporations, many governments seem to have abdicated their position of protecting the public interest (Harrington 2016;Christensen, 2021). Ironically, as politics itself has become more professionalized, the quest for votes and financial support-including from powerful professional bodies-seems to have rendered state actors even less willing to arrest or counteract the multiple forms of inequality created by contemporary professionals (Spence et al, 2017b).…”

Identité professionnelle et changements structurels. Le Québec face à la globalisation économique et culturelle

“…Ainsi, de nouvelles questions surgissent en filigrane au sujet des contraintes et des possibilités d'action (Spence, Voulgaris et Maclean, 2017;Noordegraaf, 2015). Celles-ci portent autant sur l'identité professionnelle que sur les exigences d'uniformisation présentes à l'échelle internationale.…”