Crisis in the Professions

Kevin T. Leicht is Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Former Program Officer for the Sociology and Data Intensive Research Program in the Social Sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Founding Director of the Iowa Social Science Research Center at The University of Iowa, United States. He is the former editor of Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (the official journal of the Social Stratification Section of the International Sociological Association) and The Sociological Quarterly (the official journal of the Midwest Sociological Society).Leicht has written extensively on issues relating to organizational and workplace change, economic development, globalization, and political sociology. His work has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and his published articles have appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, the Academy of Management Journal, Law and Society Review, and other outlets. His published books include Professional Work (with Mary Fennell, Blackwell, 2001), Post-Industrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle Class Prosperity (with Scott Fitzgerald, Worth, 2008) winner of the Midwest Sociological Society Best Book Award for 2009, and Middle Class Meltdown (with Scott Fitzgerald, Routledge, 2014).Mary L. Fennell is Emerita Professor of Sociology at Brown University and Emerita C.V. Starr Professor of Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship. She is the co-author of three other books (including Professional Work: A Sociological Approach, with Kevin T. Leicht) and dozens of peer-reviewed articles. She has served as Editor of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and Associate Editor of Health Services Research and is Former Chair of the ASA Section on Medical Sociology. She was Director of the Brown program in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations, Former Chair of the Department of Sociology, and Former Dean of the Faculty.Fennell has written extensively on change in professional organizations, managing change in healthcare organizations, and recognizing and managing the connections between changing technologies, changing populations of care, and conflict between providers, insurers, and healthcare organizations. She has consulted extensively for the National Cancer Institute and taught courses on healthcare organizations, research methods, and theories of organizational change. Her research work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute on Aging. She has served as Editor or Co-Editor of five special issues on topics related to healthcare policy and change in healthcare organizations, for multiple leading peer-reviewed journals. Her collaborative work on community-based cancer care and research has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health with Director’s Awards in 2009 and 2012.

The precarious situation found within professional work raises questions about how society will organize expert knowledge. This book provides valuable insights about the reasons for and implications of the decline of these elite occupations. – Arne L. Kalleberg, Kenan Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillThis well-written and engaging book demonstrates how economic, social and political changes have undermined professional work and career opportunities in the United States. Long considered among the very best jobs in the economy – secure, well-paid, autonomous and fulfilling – professional work has become more precarious and hence less appealing. Leicht and Fennell document these changes, masterfully linking economic, social, and political trends to the changing labour market for professional workers, demonstrating how social change has implications for current and future professional workers. In so doing, they provide rich insights of interest to a broad audience. – Tracey L. Adams, Professor, Western UniversityLeicht and Fennell marshal evidence from many sources to document the declining prospects for the traditional professions – and the glimmers of hope for students who are hoping to become scientists, academicians, attorneys, or physicians. – Teresa A. Sullivan, President Emerita and University Professor, the University of Virginia

• List of Figures List of Tables and Box Inserts Part I: Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age 1. Introduction 2. The Context: Disinvestment in Jobs and Cultural Fragmentation 3. Technological Change, Globalization and Professional Work Part II: Change in the Professions 4. The Value of Professions and Diversity within Professions 5. The Emergence of the Professional Precariat 6. New Professionals and New Professions? Part III: Younger Workers and their Career Expectations 7. The Work life of Millennials and Other Generations 8. The New Dark Age: Rediscovering Knowledge as the Proper Basis of Authority 9. Epilogue: "This is not a Drill..."