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MINI REVIEW article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Work, Employment and Organizations
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1515427
The utilization of the concept of profession to understand social problems: Sharing preliminary results from systematic review
Provisionally accepted- 1Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa
- 2University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
- 3University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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The nature of work has experienced steady shifts that have accelerated over the last three decades, raising important sociological questions; what does this mean for individuals and groups, relations to society, markets and the political systems that contextualise opportunities for different forms of livelihood? Profession has been a key construct for sociological analysis to understand, study and theorise the implications of such shifts in different countries, workplaces and particular occupational groups. Studies of professions have thus contributed to knowledge, not only by highlighting the implications for individuals and groups within work contexts but also illustrating importantly, how this relates to wider societal phenomena. However, there are strong contentions that because its function as a mechanism of social structure formation has weakened significantly over time, the concept of profession is no longer relevant in contemporary times. This paper shares preliminary results from a systematic review of literature on the application and conceptualisation of the term profession between 2022 and 2023 to start engaging with the question of whether it has exhausted its sociological relevance. The findings suggest firstly that while there has been an overall decline in the utilization of profession-related terms, a slight increase in the utilization of profession is apparent. Secondly, in the reviewed papers, limited engagement with the conceptual underpinning of the construct exists. Finally, while critical engagement with the concept is not always apparent, most papers recognise a clear link between social phenomena and the role of the profession/s towards maintaining or dismantling such challenges in society.
Keywords: Professions, Systematic review, conceptual engagement, Social Problems, Sociology
Received: 22 Oct 2024; Accepted: 09 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wildschut, Mbatha and Meyer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Angelique Wildschut, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa
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