Knowledge Mandates: Collective Influence by Scientific, Normative and Syncretic Professions

Repensando a teoria da proletarização dos profissionais

“…Bem observadas as tendências, as profissões continuam a exercer controle sobre esferas fundamentais do saber, e por isso dispõem de um "mandato de conhecimento" que lhes confere autoridade técnica e moral para estabelecer para toda a sociedade definições sobre aspectos ou segmentos particulares da realidade -o que é "saúde" ou "doença" e, de maneira mais geral, o que é ordem ou desordem (Halliday, 1985). Isto posto, é analiticamente mais adequado e empiricamente mais correto detectar nas mudanças por que têm passado as profissões a fase mais avançada do mesmo processo de racionalização formal que nos primórdios do capitalismo competitivo criou as condições de mercado para os primeiros movimentos profissionais.…”

Knowledge mandates in the state–profession dynamic: A study of the British insolvency profession

“…In seeking to understand the ability of a profession to successfully bring concerted pressure on the state and in matters of public interest, Halliday (1985) presents an emancipatory means of exploring the professions through a consideration of the inter-relations between epistemological foundations, authority, institutional loci of work and organizational structure. Each of these four axes bear upon the ability of the profession to infiltrate matters of public interest through collective influence upon the state and in turn to move the study of professions beyond a simple framework focused upon economic compensation and monopolization of practice (Halliday, 1985, p443).…”

“…As professions move from the formative to the established stage of professionalization, the preoccupation with monopoly diminishes and in its place, the profession recognises its potential to contribute to the management of tensions faced by democratic states (Halliday, 1987, p345). The knowledge mandate of a profession becomes of central importance in determining the optimal relation between knowledge and power in modern democracies (Carr-Saunders and Wilson, 1933, cited by Halliday, 1987;Halliday, 1985). According to Halliday (1987, p19), "the call for professional commitment to government may mean either a refinement of representative government or its circumvention".…”

“…Section two explains the theoretical framework for understanding the power of professional knowledge, drawing upon the work of Halliday (1985Halliday ( , 1987). Halliday's framework offers a conceptualization of knowledge mandates, the collective influence of professions on the state and the manner in which knowledge may be converted into authority, with varying degrees of legitimacy.…”

“…The impact of the American rescue culture and the acceptability of failure, the development of international insolvency laws within the European Union and localized problems inherent in current insolvency practice provided the impetus for legal reform. Using the work of Halliday (1985Halliday ( , 1987, this paper seeks to understand how professional knowledge and authority impact upon the state-profession relationship and the development and deployment of state policy. The British Government reacted to the global and local pressures with a shift to codification and prescription, greater enforcement of the legal system and an attempt to control and institutionalize insolvency practitioners' moral authority.…”