{"id":1905,"date":"2018-03-28T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2018-03-26T13:31:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T18:31:23","slug":"professionalization-in-the-working-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2018\/03\/28\/professionalization-in-the-working-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Professionalization in the Working World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Pedro Haas, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington, D.C. is a bit more chaotic than usual, as high-level officials enter and leave the White House at an unprecedented pace. While elected officials and political appointees are certainly part of the modern working world, their positions are different from other spheres of work.<\/span>\u00a0Unlike most other elite jobs, they generally do not require a specific set of credentials or training. Instead, elected officials and political appointees are often professionals from other fields of work who enter government for a relatively short period of time. Sociologists utilize the concept of professionalization — or the idea that individuals within a particular occupational area can claim expert knowledge — to explain why certain occupations are considered more legitimate or held in higher esteem than others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professionalization occurs when certain jobs or occupational groups become \u201cprofessions\u201d — groups that can claim jurisdiction over the knowledge within their area. Lawyers and doctors are classic examples. Both of these groups require extensive training, have formal barriers to entry, and can claim to perform work that those outside of the profession cannot. Andrew Abbott called the organization of expert labor \u201cthe system of professions,\u201d claiming that occupational groups establish themselves by creating, enforcing, and fighting over jurisdictional boundaries.<\/h5>\n