Professions today: Self-criticism and reflections for the future

Abstract

This article revisits my 1977 work The Rise of Professionalism, outlining what I now believe was wrong in my book and what I think may still be useful in order to move on to some ideas about the present situation. One of the predominant questions is whether we should completely merge the study of professions with that of knowledge-based occupations. And if we accept that the age of experts has entirely supplanted the former public life of trustee professions, what consequences derive? What trends will future research need to consider? These tentative and incomplete ideas should be read as calls for further research.