Lennart G. Svensson

New Professionalism, Trust and Competence Some Conceptual Remarks and Empirical Data

Many professional occupations have acquired a new environment and new conditions for their legitimacy. Decentralization, deregulation, privatization and new market forms have turned many professional work organizations, including schools, into clearer and more delimited organizations. Thus, there is a demand for a new professionalism in the discourse on changes and leadership of work organizations. Professionalism is strongly related to confidence in abstract systems and institutions as well as trust in individual professional practitioners. A minor semantic questionnaire study of the concept of professionalism was conducted. Results showed a very strong emphasis upon knowledge, competence and skill, and on the coupling with professions and professional practice. Professionalism was regarded by respondents as contextual competence rather than as a general capability. Practical knowledge, experience and knowledge in use were stressed over theoretical knowledge and formal education. Moreover, the concept had a strong positive connotation. Professionalism was always interpreted in the study as a phenomenon on the individual level and never on the organizational level. A cognitive aspect was completely dominant, a clear minority of respondents indicated an affective aspect, another clear minority expressed an ethical and moral aspect. Authority, licence and legitimation were barely mentioned. The concept of professionalism was not directly linked to confidence or trust, but only indirectly through concepts such as ethics and responsibility. Conversely, however, it was the cognitive attitudes towards professionalism that formed the decisive basis for trust in professionals.

EUROPEAN REGULATION OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: A study of documents focussing on architects and psychologists in the EU

ABSTRACT National governing and regulation of professions is to some extent challenged by contemporary international regulation, and partly replaced by considerable international re-regulation – firstly by the European Union, and secondly by globalization of the markets for capital, goods, services and labour. Issues regarding professions are being negotiated at the European level by European professional federations and EU public authorities. These new trends raise questions for the sociological analysis of professions regarding standards of professional education, forms of public regulation, strategies of market closure or autonomy. This paper is a summary of the policies for and the formal regulation of professional education in the European Union. Data are based on policy documents, directives and agreements with a particular focus on the cases of architects and psychologists. Psychology demonstrates most elements of a professional project, proactively emphasizing education, research and academic status and new tasks on an international market. Architecture demonstrates a more established occupation defending the market and emphasizing the social status and the ubiquitous and general role of architecture. There has been a shift from ‘hard’ regulation to more ‘soft’ regulation, allowing more room for professional actors to organise themselves and define their rules of mobility, as well as more initiatives from below and within national and supranational associations, making the policies more contextually determined compared to the external directions from above in the 1980s.

Professionelles status og tillid

Status og tillid er to almindeligt forekommende faenomener i hverdags- sproget, nar vi taler om erhverv og erhvervsudovere, og de har stor indflydelse pa, hvordan vi ser pa og behandler forskellige erhverv. Valg af uddannelse eller erhverv er ofte styret af forestillinger om erhvervets magt, indflydelse, indkomst og andre privilegier, hvilket relaterer sig til dets status. Valget kan ogsa vaere styret af forestillinger om erhvervets nytte for samfundet ud fra gode og eksklusive egenskaber, hvilket mere relaterer sig til tillid. Tilsammen kan vi sige, at det handler om symbolsk kapital, som i begge disse former ogsa spiller en afgorende rolle for, hvordan vi som offentlighed og som klienter vurderer og vaelger professionelle erhverv og erhvervsudovere.

La percezione dello status occupazionale : il caso svedese

The sociology of occupations since its classical period has been related more or less closely to studies of class and status. This paper depicts some of these issues from a case study of Sweden. Data are based on a national survey distributed in 2002 among the Swedish population age 16-74 (sample 3000), where 100 occupations were included for independent assessments of their status in general in society on a nine-point scale. The constructed rank order of occupations demonstrates a well known range of ascribed status from dishwasher to physician – legitimizing the distribution of resources and privileges, and with only minor differences of means between groups of respondents. However, some interesting class, gender and age differences remain – sometimes hidden by mean of means. Income is the main explanation behind status with a subjective as well as an objective indicator. Other significant subjective explanations are career, skill, autonomy, responsibility, honesty and moral, and influence. An alternative rank order is constructed on the status the occupations ought to have according to individual perceptions separated from collective perceptions. Occupations in education, health and care were especially upgraded, and in particular by women. There is great potential for social equality, impeded by strong reproduction of common perceptions of occupations and their status ranking. The paper is finished by comparing the data from year 2002 with data from a Swedish survey in 1958 and an American in 1989.