Table Of Content

“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 Hill “This 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 labor 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 University “Leicht 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 Crisis in the Professions 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. 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. Crisis in the Professions The New Dark Age Kevin T. Leicht and Mary L. Fennell Designed cover image: © Shutterstock First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Taylor & Francis The right of Kevin T. Leicht and Mary L. Fennell to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Leicht, Kevin T., author. | Fennell, Mary L., author. Title: Crisis in the professions: the new dark age/Kevin T. Leicht, Mary L. Fennell. Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022044029 (print) | LCCN 2022044030 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032126296 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032126258 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003225485 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Professions – Social aspects. | Economics— Sociological aspects. Classification: LCC HT687. L38 2023 (print) | LCC HT687 (ebook) | DDC 306.3—dc23/eng/20220919 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022044029 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022044030 ISBN: 978-1-032-12629-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-12625-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-22548-5 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003225485 Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of Figures xii List of Tables and Boxes xv PART I Systemic Changes 1 1 Crisis in the Professions: The New Dark Age 3 Theories of Professions and 21st-Century Professional Work (See Box 1.2) 5 Four Cross-Cutting Themes 10 Individual Examples 14 Four Vignettes 15 The Organization of This Book 18 Part I: Systemic Changes (Chapters 1–3) 18 Part II: Change in Professions and Professional Training (Chapters 4–6) 21 Part III: Younger Workers and Their Career Aspirations and Expectations (Chapters 7 and 8) 22 2 The Context: Disinvestment in Jobs and Cultural Fragmentation 24 The Biggest Change of the Past 30 Years: Disinvestment in the World of Work 24 The Long-Term Crisis of the American Middle Class 25 The Deflated Income Balloon 25 Stagnant Incomes for the Middle, Rising Incomes for the Top 26 But Not Everyone Is Hurting – The Captains of Industry Cash in 28 Lower Wages and Job Instability for the Rest of Us 29 viii Contents What Was Fueling All That Consumption? Consumer Credit! 29 Some People Got Very Rich From Stock, but Very Few People Actually Own Any 30 The Financial Collapse of 2008–2009: The Hidden Crisis Exposed 31 Betting the House and Losing 33 Unemployment, Job Loss, and Collapsing Demand: The New Poor 34 The Rigged Tax System Favoring Unearned Incomes 36 The Reality for Everyone Else—Rising Taxes as a Percentage of Personal Income 38 Cultural Backlash: The War on Expertise, Brexit, and the Election of Donald Trump 40 The End of Expertise and the Rise of Post-Modern Reasoning 40 The Overall Result? Professionals Under Attack From All Sides 45 3 Technological Change, Globalization, and Professional Work 47 Technological Change and the Professions 47 Globalization and Outsourcing Professional Work 56 Background: The Growing Global Professional Class and the Rise of the Network Society 56 Technological Change and Globalization for Our Young Professionals 61 Medical Tourism and Medical Diagnosis 63 Legal Outsourcing and the Internationalization of Legal Practice 65 Management Consulting, Accounting, and Business Services 67 Big Pharma as a Global Innovation Machine 69 And for Professionals Themselves, the Labor Market Goes Global 71 In the End, Is Globalization of Professional Work Diffusing Western Norms and Rules to the Rest of the World? 73 Contents ix PART II Change in Professions and Professional Training 75 4 The Value of Professions and Diversity Within Professions: Conflict and Queuing 77 What Affects the Value of Professional Work? A Mezzo-Level Look 83 Review of Supply/Demand Issues: Are There Too Many Degree Holders? 84 Undergraduate Degrees 84 Traditional Doctoral Education 87 Is the Cost of Advanced Training Just Too High? 91 A Note Concerning Postdoctoral Fellowships 95 Devaluation of Advanced Degrees and Expertise 95 A Reminder: Important Themes Underpinning This Volume 96 Where Are We in Terms of the Diversity of Workers Represented in Managerial and Professional Jobs? 97 Gender and Racial Representation in Professional Work in a Rapidly Changing Environment 98 Conclusion – Gender and Racial Diversity in a Rapidly Changing Professional Environment 104 5 The Emergence of the Professional Precariat 107 The Precariat – Who Are They and Do Some Professionals Fit the Label? 107 A Professional Precariat 111 Medicine: Hospitalists, Per Diem Nurses, Data Nurses, and Medical Scribes 112 The Stalled Legal Market: Fewer Positions, the Rise of Legal Aids and Paralegals, Legal Outsourcing, and Declining Law School Applications 114 Academia 118 Stem Professions 121 The GIG Economy, Freelancing, and Temporary Work: Is This Really the Wave of the Future? 123