Comparing professions through actor-centred governance: Community nursing in Britain and Germany

Abstract

Professions are increasingly studied from an international perspective, and understanding context is key to cross-national comparison of professions. This paper builds on studies of health service work in different countries and introduces actor-centred governance as a framework for comparing professions. The framework conceptualises context as institutions and, as such, offers a more systematic analysis of context and the interplay between context and actors. The framework is applied to a comparative study of community nursing in Britain and Germany, which includes a local case study of the governance of internal boundaries. Actor-centred governance helps to map out different actors and the interplay among them, to identify different types of institutions, and to trace how institutions relate to actors and vice versa. As such, actor-centred governance allows for a more systematic analysis of similarities and differences, and facilitates comparisons across different countries. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd/Editorial Board 2005.