Interrogating professional power and recognition of specialized knowledge: a class analysis

Reconnecting class and production relations in an advanced capitalist ‘knowledge economy’: Changing class structure and class consciousness

“…These findings suggest that a decline in traditional labour support for the right to strike may correspond with the general decline of the numbers of industrial and service workers and associated decline in numbers of members of previously established unions. But this decline is counterbalanced by the growing numbers of professional employees who have joined unions and comparable associations with similar collective interest in protecting their negotiating rights on working conditions (Livingstone 2014). Among owners, both corporate capitalists and large employers have become increasingly solidary in their support for using replacement workers in pursuit of flexibility in their labour forces.…”

“… 2. See Livingstone (2014) for further discussion and empirical analysis distinguishing professional employees from professional owners, self-employed professionals and professional managers. Professional employees are found throughout private and public industrial and service sectors. …”

Epidemics and the Health of African Nations

“…While most studies of professions focus on the specialised body of knowledge that underpins each profession (Freidson, 1989), they often overlook power relations in the workplace, including class and gender dynamics. These dynamics influence the capacity of workers in professions to assert their claim over specialised knowledge (Livingstone, 2014;Sawchuk 2017). Structural dynamics informing work in public health care, including the everyday practices of frontline health workers in deploying their specialised knowledge, deserve further attention in both academic debates and policy interventions.…”

“…Workplace power is defined by Livingstone (2014) as the capacity to direct oneself and command others to achieve the goals of an organisation. This influences the ability of professionals to enclose and make legitimate claims over a specialised body of knowledge.…”

“…In the context of the 'nursing crisis' and the government's focus on the supply of nursing skills, findings pointing to the fact that nurses are confident of their knowledge of theoretical disciplines compels us to explore power dynamics in the workplace and in society with the aim of recognising nurses' knowledge-based contribution to the hospital setting. Livingstone (2014) points to the continuum of disempowerment certain professions may experience in society and in the workplace: if specialised knowledge in nursing is not socially recognised, it cannot be translated into workplace power.…”