Using data on local, state, and national events in American medicine, this article analyzes the order in which professionalization occurs. A variety of basic “events” in professionalization are investigated: control of work, development of schools and other knowledge institutions, creation of professionally dominated work sites, association, licensing, and scientific transformation. At the local level, the sequence of professionalization seems to be control, practical knowledge, dominated work sites, and scientific transformation, with association coming approximately contemporaneous with practical knowledge. At the state level, control and association begin the process, in that order, with efforts proceeding both at the state level and in a state's major city. Widespread local activity in control and association come only later. Practical knowledge, controlled work sites, and various forms of “tangential” knowledge follow these earlier events. The article argues for a model of professionalization as a multilevel, diffusion process.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abbott, A. (1982). The evolution of American psychiatry. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago.
2.
Abbott, A.
(1983). Sequences of social events. Historical Methods, 16, 129-147.
3.
Abbott, A.
(1984). Event sequence and event duration. Historical Methods, 17, 192-204.
4.
Abbott, A.
(1988). The system of professions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Abbott, A.
(1990). A primer on sequence methods. Organization Science1, 373-392.
6.
Abbott, A.
, & Hrycak, A. (1990). Measuring resemblance in sequence data. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 144-185.
7.
American medical directory. (1921). Chicago: American Medical Association.
8.
Atwater, C. E.
(1973). The medical profession in New Society, Rochester, NY, 1811-1860. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 47, 221-235.
9.
Atwater, C. E.
(1977). The physicians of Rochester, NY, 1860-1910. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 51, 93-106.
10.
Baker, S. L.
(1984). Physicians' licensure in the United States, 1865-1915. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 39, 173-197.
11.
Baker, S. L.
(1985). A strange case: the physician licensure campaign in Massachusetts in 1880. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 40, 286-308.
12.
Blumberg, M. S.
(1983). A check list of over 500 American medical fee bills through 1912. Unpublished manuscript, Kaiser Foundation, Oakland, CA.
13.
Blumberg, M. S.
(1984). Medical society regulation of fees in Boston, 1780-1820. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 39, 303-338.
14.
Blustein, B. E.
(1979). New York neurologists and the specialization of American medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 53, 170-183.
15.
Burnham, J. C.
(1984). Change in the popularization of health in the United States. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 58, 183-197.
16.
Burrage, M.
, & Torstendahl, R. (Eds.). (1990). Professions in theory and history. London: Sage.
17.
Carroll, J. D.
, & Arabie, P. (1980). Multidimensional scaling. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 607-649.
18.
Cassedy, J. H.
(1983). The flourishing and character of early American medical journalism. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 38, 135-150.
19.
Chatman, S.
(1978). Story and discourse. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
20.
Christianson, E. H.
(1980). The emergence of medical communities in Massachusetts, 1700-1794. Bulletin of the History of medicine, 54, 64-77.
21.
Cocks, G.
, & Jarausch, K. H. (Eds.). (1990). German professions 1800-1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
Cullen, J. B.
(1978). The structure of professionalism. New York: Petrocelli.
23.
Ebert, M.
(1952). The rise and development of the American medical periodical. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 40, 243-276.
24.
Fielding, A.
, & Portwood, D. (1980). Professions and the state. Sociological Review, 28, 23-53.
25.
Freidson, E.
(1970). Profession of medicine. New York: Dodd, Mead.
26.
Freidson, E.
(1986). Professional powers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
27.
Halliday, T.
(1987). Beyond monopoly. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
Hickson, D. J.
, & Thomas, M. W. (1969). Professionalization in Britain. Sociology, 3, 37-53.
29.
Hodson, F. R.
, Kendall, D. G., & Tautu, P. (Eds.). (1971). Mathematics in the historical and archeological sciences. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
30.
Humphrey, D. C.
(1975). The King's College Medical School and the profession of medicine in pre-revolutionary New York. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 49, 206-234.
31.
Johnson, T. J.
(1967). Professions and power. London: Macmillan.
32.
Khoury, R. M.
(1980). Is there a process of occupational professionalization?International Behavioral Scientist, 12, 39-60.
33.
Larson, M. S.
(1977). The rise of professionalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
34.
Marrett, C. B.
(1979). On the evolution of women's medical societies. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 53, 434-448.
35.
Marrett, C. B.
(1980). Influences on the rise of new organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25, 185-199.
36.
Morman, M. T.
(1984). Clinical pathology in America: Philadelphia as a test case. Bulletin of the History of Medicines, 58, 198-214.
37.
Rosenberg, C. E.
(1979). Inward vision and outward glance. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 53, 346-391.
38.
Rothstein, W. G.
(1972). American physicians in the nineteenth century. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
39.
Stevens, R.
(1984). Sweet charity: State aid to hospitals in Pennsylvania, 1870-1910. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 58, 287-314, 474-495.
40.
Toner, J. M.
(1873). Statistics of regular medical associations and hospitals of the United States. Transactions of the American Medical Association, 24, 285-333.
41.
Torstendahl, R.
, & Burrage, M. (Eds.). (1990). The formation of professions. London: Sage.
42.
Vollmer, H.
, & Mills, D. M. (1966). Professionalization. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
43.
Wilensky, H. L.
(1964). The professionalization of everyone?American Journal of Sociology, 70, 137-158.
