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Recent scholarship reveals the imagery of the professional as the “ideal citizen”. The linkage between professionalism and citizenship is here approached from the perspective of democratic social justice in order to examine the persistence of gendered inequalities in the health care system. The paper aims to examine the ideas framing professionalism, both in sociological theory and historically, asking what gendered hierarchies mean in modern health care systems, and why and how they persist in the conditions of liberal democracy.

The question is approached through both sociological literature and an analysis of historical framings of professionalism; the Finnish health care system is employed as a case. The reason for keeping the discussion close to a specific case is that different professional fields, countries and historic contexts differ from each other in democratically relevant respects.

Traditional sociological theory assumed that professional privilege was based on essentially neutral expertise that benefits democracy only if protected from bureaucracy and politics. The recent theoretical turn reframes professional knowledge as socially defined, but the destabilisation of professional knowledge claims is not without problems. The paper refers to the persisting tensions between changing governance and gendered hierarchies in health care and argues for new approaches that suggest ways through which professional expertise can be democratically represented in politics.

The interdisciplinary framework uses political theory on social justice to examine how health care politics frame professionalism.

This study aims to ask a theoretical question of “whether forensic accounting meets the sociological criteria of being a profession” in the Australian context. The present study responds to several scholarly calls to improve the studies on forensic accounting in Australia.

Based on the professionalism theory perspective, this study developed an analysis of the sociological criteria of a profession. This study used qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with elite Australian forensic accounting practitioners and academics.

The findings of the study show that forensic accounting in Australia partly meets the sociological criteria of a profession. Forensic accounting in the Australian context must meet essential criteria such as autonomy and commitment to be recognized as a profession.

This study has implications for the professionalism of forensic accounting along with vital issues surrounding the profession such as public recognition, altruistic behavior and control of entry to the profession.

This study provides social contributions by emphasizing forensic accountants’ sociological roles, including the altruistic role and solving social problems role. Understanding these roles provides the practitioners with the fundamental knowledge to use during their work.

This study is original in that it sheds light on the professionalism of forensic accounting in the Australian context.

This chapter develops a model of professionalism via a synthesis of three extant theories from the sociology of the professions literature. Nine components or conditions of the model are used to trace the historical development of public accountancy through an Early Era from 1850 to 1929 and a Modern Era from 1930 to the mid-1980s. The conclusion is that concerted efforts over an approximate 130 year period were needed for accountancy to achieve elite professional status in the eyes of the U.S. public. The question remaining is if accountants have forgotten the history lessons on what has been required to achieve and sustain elite professional status?

The teaching profession calls for professionals who are theoretical, pedagogical and critical as they influence teaching, learning and the reconstruction of schools. One of the “myths and legends” about teachers is that they are mostly interested to hear about practical ideas for their teaching and often resist theories behind their practice or theoretical analysis. If they do not take a stance towards education or are not aware of where they stand, their behavior or actions can manifest in ‘excessive teacher entitlement’ as a response to unreasonable demands or pressure. In this chapter focus will be centered on how teachers and educators inquire into practice and professional capacities in order to recognize their identities, roles, and pedagogical and theoretical background. This chapter's purpose is to understand the complexity of supporting teachers to create their agency and to find ways to support them in their transition.

This paper aims to discuss the challenge for the classical idea of professionalism in understanding the Chinese software engineering industry after giving a close insight into the development of this industry as well as individual engineers with a psycho‐societal perspective.

The study starts with the general review of the sociological concept of profession, professional and specialization of knowledge. Together with revealing the critical challenge from the empirical field of software engineering industry regarding its professionalization, a critique of the neglect of subjective agency in classical conception of professionalism in sociology theory and methodology is set out.

A case study with interpretation of the subject's continuously developing identification with their specialization in knowledge and occupation from their narration of career experience reveals the dynamics in this development process relating to individual, social practice and societal factors.

This paper contributes to empirical research of analyzing the professionalization process of software engineering and software engineers in relation to the concept of professionalism, and it contributes theoretically by discussing the challenge of this process to the development of professionalism within this highly knowledge‐based industry in a Chinese societal context.

The time period from the mid-1980s through 2002 is described in this series of research as a “pre-SOX” era of rapid deprofessionalization in U.S. pubic accountancy resulting in the loss of professional status. This was a period, however, when all professions were suffering some deprofessionalization. During the pre-SOX period it appears that leadership in public accountancy responded to a nearly perfect storm of changes confronting the profession with a corporate mentality of management by objectives, commercialization, and profit maximization resulting in constant and substantial net deprofessionalization greater than that of other professions. Starting in the late-1970s and continuing through 2001, some critics of public accountancy have asserted that leaders in the profession either lost or forgot what was required for public accountancy to be recognized as a profession. The conclusion stated in this paper is that public accountancy has lost its professional status in or before 2002. The reasons and events leading to this conclusion are presented and discussed. In the United States it appears as though once professional status is lost, regaining the elite status is more difficult. The question is if public accountancy can learn from history going into the substantial changes to be confronted in the post-SOX era of public accountancy and regain or at least make progress toward regaining professional status.

The purpose of this paper is to review the contemporary theories of professionalism, together with an assessment of the complex factors resulting in a fundamental re‐examination of the nature and role of the information profession (IP) in contemporary society.

A combination of strong structuration and social identity theories is suggested as a suitable methodological framework for determining the meaning of “professionalism” within the context of the contemporary IP.

The future of the IP is by no means assured, and further empirical studies need to be undertaken to map the extent of change and the degree to which this is a matter of concern.

This paper outlines a suitable methodological approach for future studies, together with a review of key factors impinging on the contemporary IP.

This methodological framework has been utilised in related studies of cognate professions, but not thus far applied to IP.

Discusses the importance of professions within states asking questions such as “are these occupations monopolies whose anti‐competitive effects distort the social and economic organisation of society?” Continues by considering whether professions can serve both public and private interests. Looks at the international dimension and how professions are responding to the development of European Feferations, and attempts to assess their influence.

This paper seeks to review the accounting history content of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) over the last 20 years and to identify distinctive research themes therein. Observations and suggestions are offered in relation to future accounting history research.

The study comprises an analysis of the content of AAAJ and related literature.

Histories appearing in AAAJ have focused on technical issues, accounting in business organisations, cost and management accounting, accounting historiography, professionalisation, and socio‐cultural studies of accounting. The journal has been an important medium for the pursuit of interdisciplinarity, the promotion and practical application of new research methods, methodological pluralism, and searches for convergence in historical debates.

The paper discusses the potential for advancing established research agendas in accounting history and identifies some new subjects for investigation by accounting historians.

It is suggested that, while methodological innovation and plurality are to be applauded, the sustained application of new approaches should also receive greater encouragement. Searches for rapprochement in accounting history debate run the risk of stultifying historical controversy. It is argued that histories of management accounting, gender, class, professionalisation are far from “complete” and should be reignited through the adoption of broader theoretical, temporal and spatial parameters. An emphasis on the performative aspects of accounting in socio‐cultural histories is encouraged, as is clearer recognition of the significance of contemporary understandings of the boundaries of accounting. Also emphasised is the desirability of more indigenously sensitised histories of the profession, greater engagement with the “literary turn”, and a renewed commitment to interdisciplinarity.

This paper aims to analyse the current literature on women in public relations to establish trends and areas of inquiry in the literature and identify research gaps for future research.

A total of 223 articles have been empirically analysed using thematic analysis to identify trends in the existing literature. The data has been coded and analysed per decade (1982–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2009, 2010–2019). The articles have been identified by searching major journals in the field of public relations and communications, as well as snowballing from identified articles.

The results show that the majority of academic articles have been produced by using lived experiences of women working in the public relations industry and thus reflect the professional situation of female public relations employees. The results show that the position of women has reached a full circle in four decades of research and returned to the discriminatory work environment. Finally, the results show that a liberal feminist perspective has an advantage in the literature since the majority of works have been produced in the United States; however, there is an increase in authors calling for the use of socialist and radical feminism.

The paper provides a comprehensive literature review of works published in the field. The paper takes an empirical approach to the analysis rather than the descriptive one, which helped in identifying major trends in the research and identified a research gap for future inquiries.