This Article Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0730888407313032v1 35/2/164    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Google Scholar Articles by Timmermans, S. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Professions and Their Work: Do Market Shelters Protect Professional Interests?

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Stefan{at}soc.ucla.edu.

	Abstract

Eliot Freidson introduced the concept of the "market shelter" to designate the unique institutional position that professions hold in society. A market shelter shields professional workers from competition, third party and government interference, and other market forces. Once put in place through legal mandates, however, it remains unclear how market shelters weather with political and economic changes and provide benefits for professionals, the state, and the public. This article reviews how clinical medicine and forensic medicine reacted to outside pressures to address the problem of practice variation to understand under which conditions stable market shelters may be professionally harmful and how less sheltered professions may instead use the fight against external challenges to solidify their professional position.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?