Professionalism the third logic pdf

This work explores the meaning and implications of professionalism as a form of social organization. Eliot Freidson formalizes professionalism by treating it as an ideal grounded in the political economy; he presents it as a third logic, or as a more viable alternative to consumerism and bureaucracy. He ask us to imagine a world where workers with specialized knowledge and ability to provide society with an important service can organize and control their own work without being told what to do and when, from management or the influence of free markets.

There is then an appraisal of the status of professionalism that explores how traditional and national variations in state policy and organization are influencing the power and practice of such professions as medicine and law.

Eliot Freidson formalizes professionalism by treating it as an ideal type grounded in the political economy; he presents the concept as a third logic, or a more viable alternative to consumerism and bureaucracy.

He asks us to imagine a world where workers with specialized knowledge and the ability to provide society with especially important services can organize and control their own work, without directives from management or the influence of free markets.

Freidson then appraises the present status of professionalism, exploring how traditional and national variations in state policy and organization are influencing the power and practice of such professions as medicine and law. Widespread attacks by neoclassical economists and populists, he contends, are obscuring the social value of credentialism and monopolies. The institutions that sustain professionalism in our world are simply too useful to both capital and state to dismiss.

Back to top. Table of Contents. Horowitz, R. Rutgers University Press: London. Johnson, T. Industrial Society: Class Cleavage and Control. Allen and Unwin: London. Kelleher, D. Kuhlmann, E. The Policy Press: Bristol, pp. Larson, M. California University Press: Los Angeles. Light, D. Handbook of Medical Sociology. Sixth edition. The Vanderbilt University Press: Nashville.

McDonald, R. McKinlay, J. See also in the same edition of the journal a comment in response by Freidson pp. Morgan, M. Navarro, V. Prodist: New York. Nettleton, S. Parsons, T. Pollock, A. Spyridonidis, D. Timmermans, S. Willis, E.