A new professional landscape: Entangled institutional logics in two Swedish welfare professions

Abstract

Previous research has made three parallel but incompatible observations on the contemporary development of welfare professions: loss of professional autonomy, hybridization, and maintained autonomy. Yet, research providing contextual understanding of the simultaneous occurrence of these three observations is lacking. The aim of this theoretical paper is to identify and explain seemingly contradictory coexisting features of modern welfare professions through a comprehensive reading of current literature on the health care and teaching professions in Sweden. The literature has demonstrated entangled institutional logics, in which simultaneous but differing effects occur, thereby developing a new professional landscape.