Ecologies of Boundaries: Modes of Boundary Work in Professional Proto‐Jurisdictions

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ecologies of Boundaries

T2 - Modes of Boundary Work in Professional Proto‐Jurisdictions

AU - Blok, Anders

AU - Lindstrøm, Maria D.

AU - Meilvang, Marie L.

AU - Pedersen, Inge K.

PY - 2019/11/1

Y1 - 2019/11/1

N2 - Ecological approaches to professional work, authority, and regulation have seen a resurgence in the sociology of professions, as epitomized in the linked ecologies framework of Andrew Abbott. Alongside this resurgence comes a renewed attention to the way symbolic and material boundaries within and between professions, as well as between professional, university, and political institutions, come to be defined, negotiated, and changed as part of ongoing professional projects. Building on and comparing case studies set in Denmark into three emerging professional “proto‐jurisdictions”—of water‐related climate adaptation, lifestyle disease prevention, and innovation management—this article identifies three key modes of interprofessional boundary work important for such projects. In doing so, it grounds Abbott's meso‐level framework of linked ecologies in more situated accounts of workplace‐level boundary interaction, by reconnecting to a wider tradition of symbolic interactionist studies of professions.

AB - Ecological approaches to professional work, authority, and regulation have seen a resurgence in the sociology of professions, as epitomized in the linked ecologies framework of Andrew Abbott. Alongside this resurgence comes a renewed attention to the way symbolic and material boundaries within and between professions, as well as between professional, university, and political institutions, come to be defined, negotiated, and changed as part of ongoing professional projects. Building on and comparing case studies set in Denmark into three emerging professional “proto‐jurisdictions”—of water‐related climate adaptation, lifestyle disease prevention, and innovation management—this article identifies three key modes of interprofessional boundary work important for such projects. In doing so, it grounds Abbott's meso‐level framework of linked ecologies in more situated accounts of workplace‐level boundary interaction, by reconnecting to a wider tradition of symbolic interactionist studies of professions.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - boundary work

KW - professional change

KW - proto-jurisdictions

KW - workplace interaction

U2 - 10.1002/symb.428

DO - 10.1002/symb.428

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0195-6086

VL - 42

SP - 588

EP - 617

JO - Symbolic Interaction

JF - Symbolic Interaction

IS - 4

ER -