Knowledge, Expertise and the Professions

It has long been recognised that specialised knowledge is at the core of what distinguishes professions from other occupations. However, the privileged status of professions in most countries, together with their claims to autonomy and access to specialised knowledge, is being increasingly challenged both by market pressures and by new instruments of accountability and regulation. Established and emerging professions are increasingly seen as either the solution, as the 'knowledge workers of the future', or as sources of conservatism and resistance to change as barriers to innovation and economic growth in western economies. Most recent developments in professional education draw on a competence model which emphasises what newly qualified members of a profession 'can do' rather than what 'they know'.

This book is the first attempt to apply the disciplines of the sociology of knowledge and epistemology to the question of professional knowledge. What is this knowledge? The book goes beyond traditional debates between 'knowing how' and 'knowing that', and 'theory' and 'practice'. It ranges widely from discussions of the threats to the knowledge base of established professions like engineers, architects, and lawyers to the fraught situations faced by occupations whose fragile knowledge base and professional status is increasingly challenged by new forms of control.

While recognising that graduates seeking employment as members of a profession need to show their capabilities, this book argues for reversing the trend that blurs or collapses the skill/knowledge distinction. If professions are to have a future - and it is difficult to imagine where the much sought-after innovations will come from if they don't - then a professions knowledge, or more precisely her/his capacity for envisaging new possibilities, is going to be more important than ever before.