Neo-Weberianism, Professional Formation and the State: Inside the Black Box

Abstract

This paper outlines a neo-Weberian approach to state-sponsored social closure in professional formation. Despite its advantages, state decision-making is not typically well-defined or examined in neo-Weberian analyses. Neo-Weberianism is differentiated from Max Weber’s own work on social action and rationality, which generally provides a more subtle interpretation of state socio-political processes. The paper explores how policy formation can be more incisively analyzed inside the black box of state decision-making from a Weberian perspective. This is exemplified by the passage of the 1858 Medical Act in the United Kingdom establishing the state-supported medical profession. While further work is necessary in filling in the black box, this paper charts an important future path for neo-Weberian analyses of professions, and their relationship with the state.

Health professional regulation in historical context: Canada, the USA and the UK (19th century to present)

“…Changing relations between professions and the state and the emergence of new stakeholders in the regulatory process strongly shaped regulatory change. Moreover, notions of "the public interest" altered over this period [11].…”

“…Second, attempts to standardize regulation and to subject professional bodies to additional oversight increased. In this era, social understandings of the public interest shifted to encompass cost containment and efficiency, along with access and service quality [11]. Employer and other private sector forms of regulation emerged [5].…”

The consequence of waiters’ professional identity on passion for work and its effects on employee turnover: a qualitative approach

“…Professional identity can be understood to involve an 'essence', which is considerably moulded by organisational and social contexts. Aspiring identity claims a significant perception from a previous group of organisational academics (Muzio et al 2020;Rodrigues and Mogarro, 2019;Saks and Adams, 2019) who employed the notion of 'organisational essence' to define the ideal values, policies, or behaviour of organisations. These components can become part of the essence of employees' identity, even before they belong to the organisation and thus it is a provisional part of their professional identity.…”

“…Hickson and Thomas (1969) created a hierarchy of work sectors, ranging from more professional occupations, such as doctors and architects to less professional occupations (e.g. nurses) (Saks and Adams, 2019). Hickson and Thomas (1969) established a list of 19 components that characterise the degree to which an occupation is professionalised.…”

Bureaupathology and paper pressing in the Russian education

“…Еще в начале XX века М. Вебер отнес учителей к полупрофессионалам изза отсутствия у них сильной социальной организации, контроля над отраслевыми стандартами, механизмами профессионализации и принятием решений, влияния на жизнь «клиентов» (что отличает учительство от «подлинных профессионалов», например, врачей, юристов, военных специалистов). Признаки полупрофессионализма прорабатываются в зарубежной социологии профессий [23]: считается, что в среде учительства они не преодолены ни в индустриальном обществе [15], ни в информационном [23]. Эти признаки присущи и российскому учительству [8; 12], т.е.…”