Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age presents a wide, panoramic view into the state of modern professional work in the United States. Struggling labor markets, growing inequalities, and increasing amounts of cultural and political mistrust are but a few major changes undermining the people seen as essential in society and needed to compete in a globalized, highly skilled world.
The authors explore this profound dilemma through a variety of methods, each one allowing them to identify significant areas of change and concern. They address macro-level social, political, and economic forces at the root of these changes and pair these explanations with illustrative vignettes of young, would-be professionals to paint a comprehensive, albeit complicated picture of professional work in the 21st century. Amid a backdrop of increasing globalization, technological advance, and cultural devaluation of expertise, the authors point attention to the mounting implications these shifts have for new generations of professionals and consider alternative models to address signs of precarity and instability within the professions.
With piercing insight and compelling evidence, Crisis in the Professions probes deeply enough to stimulate scholars and researchers invested in the sociological study of work and provides a valuable, versatile read for advanced students in these areas as well.
Author(s): Kevin T. Leicht, Mary L. Fennell
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 223
City: New York
Cover
Endoresments
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables and Boxes
Part I Systemic Changes
1 Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age
Theories of Professions and 21st-Century Professional Work (See Box 1.2)
Four Cross-Cutting Themes
Individual Examples
Four Vignettes
The Organization of This Book
Part I: Systemic Changes (Chapters 1–3)
Part II: Change in Professions and Professional Training (Chapters 4–6)
Part III: Younger Workers and Their Career Aspirations and Expectations (Chapters 7 and 8)
2 The Context: Disinvestment in Jobs and Cultural Fragmentation
The Biggest Change of the Past 30 Years: Disinvestment in the World of Work
The Long-Term Crisis of the American Middle Class
The Deflated Income Balloon
Stagnant Incomes for the Middle, Rising Incomes for the Top
But Not Everyone Is Hurting – The Captains of Industry Cash in
Lower Wages and Job Instability for the Rest of Us
What Was Fueling All That Consumption? Consumer Credit!
Some People Got Very Rich From Stock, but Very Few People Actually Own Any
The Financial Collapse of 2008–2009: The Hidden Crisis Exposed
Betting the House and Losing
Unemployment, Job Loss, and Collapsing Demand: The New Poor
The Rigged Tax System Favoring Unearned Incomes
The Reality for Everyone Else—Rising Taxes as a Percentage of Personal Income
Cultural Backlash: The War on Expertise, Brexit, and the Election of Donald Trump
The End of Expertise and the Rise of Post-Modern Reasoning
The Overall Result? Professionals Under Attack From All Sides
3 Technological Change, Globalization, and Professional Work
Technological Change and the Professions
Globalization and Outsourcing Professional Work
Background: The Growing Global Professional Class and the Rise of the Network Society
Technological Change and Globalization for Our Young Professionals
Medical Tourism and Medical Diagnosis
Legal Outsourcing and the Internationalization of Legal Practice
Management Consulting, Accounting, and Business Services
Big Pharma as a Global Innovation Machine
And for Professionals Themselves, the Labor Market Goes Global
In the End, Is Globalization of Professional Work Diffusing Western Norms and Rules to the Rest of the World?
Part II Change in Professions and Professional Training
4 The Value of Professions and Diversity Within Professions: Conflict and Queuing
What Affects the Value of Professional Work? A Mezzo-Level Look
Review of Supply/Demand Issues: Are There Too Many Degree Holders?
Undergraduate Degrees
Traditional Doctoral Education
Is the Cost of Advanced Training Just Too High?
A Note Concerning Postdoctoral Fellowships
Devaluation of Advanced Degrees and Expertise
A Reminder: Important Themes Underpinning This Volume
Where Are We in Terms of the Diversity of Workers Represented in Managerial and Professional Jobs?
Gender and Racial Representation in Professional Work in a Rapidly Changing Environment
Conclusion – Gender and Racial Diversity in a Rapidly Changing Professional Environment
5 The Emergence of the Professional Precariat
The Precariat – Who Are They and Do Some Professionals Fit the Label?
A Professional Precariat
Medicine: Hospitalists, Per Diem Nurses, Data Nurses, and Medical Scribes
The Stalled Legal Market: Fewer Positions, the Rise of Legal Aids and Paralegals, Legal Outsourcing, and Declining Law School Applications
Academia
Stem Professions
The GIG Economy, Freelancing, and Temporary Work: Is This Really the Wave of the Future?
6 New Professionals and New Professions?
The Rise of New Professions
Financial Analysts – The New Accountancy?
Enron, MCI-WORLDCOM, and Royal Ahold: Bumps on the Road to Professional Omnibus Business Services
Data Science – Who Will Manage All Those New Data Resources?
University Entrepreneurship Programs: Can Everyone Be an Entrepreneur?
Finance, Data Science, and Entrepreneurship: An Alternative to the Traditional Professions?
Part III Younger Workers and Their Career Aspirations and Expectations
7 The Worklife of Millennials and Other Generations
Definitions: A Generational Perspective
Careers and Career Paths: Two Models in the Literature on Careers
Career Stories and Career Aspirations
Catalina the Internist
Corwin the Lawyer
Maria the Biologist
Selina the Comparative Literature Adjunct Instructor
Millennials Up Close
8 The New Dark Age: Rediscovering Knowledge as the Proper Basis of Authority
Conclusion and Implications
Is Our Current Intellectual Environment a “New Dark Age”?
Where Do the Professions Go From Here??
Professions as Systems of Social Closure
Professions as Risk Managers in a Risk Society
Professions as Trusted Interpreters of Information
Professions as Values and Ideology
Professionals as Promoters of Endogenous Institutional Change
Some Modest Reforms
Conclusion: What Are the Chances??
Epilogue – “This Is Not a Drill . . .”
Fall, 2022
The Widespread, Multilevel Changes in Professional Work Crippled Our Response to the Pandemic and Stifled the Recovery
Globalization and the Pandemic
Then, at a Time When We Need Experts, We Ignore Them or Send Them Packing
Bibliography
Index
