‘I am not a politician’: Professional boundary work in Wilhelmine Germany

Prior research on professional boundary work emphasises the importance of subtle interactions among affected individuals when a new role is inserted into an established professional setting, which inevitably changes the prevalent division of labour. Thus, managers may set reflective spaces for professionals to collaboratively arrange their boundaries and make room for the new professional. This ethnomethodologically oriented study examines boundary arrangements in work development meetings in a university hospital, while professionals made room for a new role, a hospitalist. Examining professionals’ naturally occurring interactions in reflective spaces, the findings depict seven categorisations for the hospitalist. Elaborating on the dynamics of these categorisations, we propose that technically based categorisations sustain stability and context-bound categorisations allow change in work practices, whereas their combination enables transformation within the institutional context. Accordingly, the study adds to the literature on the transformative potential of reflective spaces by illuminating the intertwining of engaged professionals’ boundary talk-in-interaction with the consequences of configurational boundary work in relation to a new professional role.

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Boundary work between research communities: Culture and power in a French nanosciences and nanotechnology hub

Social Science Information ◽

10.1177/0539018412466638 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 134-158 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Morgan Jouvenet

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Production ◽

Boundary Work ◽

Scientific Activity ◽

The Other ◽

Cultural Dimension ◽

Local Competition ◽

Research Communities ◽

Professional Boundary ◽

Economic Expectations ◽

Local Research

Today, nanoscience and nanotechnology (NS/T) is one of the most visible domains of scientific activity. Its promises rest especially on a convergence dynamics that brings various research communities closer together. This convergence is interdisciplinary, but it also renews links between applied and basic science. Nanoscale-related folk myths and economic expectations are well documented, as are interventions of policymakers. Lab-level relations have on the other hand been less studied. Based on a qualitative study conducted in one of France’s main NS/T centres, this article shows how researchers experience boundaries in the workplace. Indeed, as local physicists are prompted to plan heterogeneous projects, they stress the importance of cultural and professional distinctions between local research communities. If Shinn’s ‘regimes of knowledge production’ offer useful conceptual tools to make sense of interactions and distinctions in this science and technology hub, the cultural dimension of exchanges and resistances has nevertheless to be emphasized in this framework. For the interviewed scientists, professional boundary work has furthermore a clear political meaning, while their collective rhetoric is also a way to claim credit in the local competition for institutional favours.

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Situating Boundary Work: Chronic Disease Prevention in Danish Hospitals

Professions and Professionalism ◽

10.7577/pp.3362 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Inge Kryger Pedersen

Keyword(s):

Disease Prevention ◽

Preventive Measures ◽

Boundary Work ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Professional Groups ◽

Professional Boundary ◽

Lifestyle Disease ◽

Lifestyle Related Diseases ◽

Depth Interviews

Noncommunicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, are the leading cause of death globally. This paper focuses on the boundary work among health professions involved in lifestyle-related preventive measures at Danish hospitals. Drawing on documents, qualitative in-depth interviews and extended conversations conducted with health professionals about goals, dilemmas, and practices related to lifestyle disease prevention, as well as site visits at Danish hospitals, it is identified which professional groups have claimed responsibility for the tasks, how they are defined, and through what kinds of interactions and infighting. The analysis grounds Abbott’s framework of jurisdictions and his meso-level vocabulary in a situated account of professional boundary work and follow the way nurses in particular create, and sometimes stabilize or standardize techniques for prevention of lifestyle-related diseases. It is demonstrated by different forms of boundary work how nurses work to extend, defend or refashion established work boundaries when handling these new tasks.

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Self-casting and alter-casting: Healthcare professionals’ boundary work in response to peer workers

Current Sociology ◽

10.1177/00113921211048532 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 001139212110485

Author(s):

Margaretha Järvinen ◽

Malene Lue Kessing

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Health Services ◽

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Boundary Work ◽

Mental Healthcare ◽

Healthcare Services ◽

Recovery Model ◽

Recovery Orientation ◽

Professional Boundary

Within mental health services, the recovery model has been a guiding philosophy over the past decades. This model stresses ‘person-centred care’ and focuses on assisting service users to live a meaningful and hopeful life even if their illness has not been cured. As part of the recovery orientation, ‘peer workers’ (PWs), i.e. people with lived experiences of mental illness, are increasingly employed within mental health services. In this article, the authors explore how these changes open up frontiers and set in motion boundary work and identity discussions among healthcare professionals. Empirically, the article draws on qualitative data – interviews with healthcare professionals and observations of meetings – collected in mental healthcare services in Denmark. Theoretically, the article combines literature on professional boundary work with theories on ‘self-casting’, ‘alter-casting’ and ‘othering’. Analysing two sets of demarcations – those between healthcare professionals and PWs, and those between professionals and patients – the study shows how the recovery model leads to defensive boundary work as well as an opening up of boundaries.

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Professional boundary work in the face of change to generalist working in community nursing in Scotland

Journal of Advanced Nursing ◽

10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05601.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 67 (8) ◽

pp. 1695-1704 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Carol Gray ◽

Rhona Hogg ◽

Catriona Kennedy

Keyword(s):

Boundary Work ◽

Community Nursing ◽

Professional Boundary ◽

The Face

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Situating Boundary Work: Chronic Disease Prevention in Danish Hospitals

Professions and Professionalism ◽

10.7577/pp.3886 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Inge Kryger Pedersen

Keyword(s):

Disease Prevention ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Boundary Work ◽

Professional Boundaries ◽

Professional Groups ◽

Work Tasks ◽

Professional Boundary ◽

Lifestyle Related Diseases ◽

Depth Interviews

This paper investigates how health professions compete and cooperate in addressing emerging local work tasks defined in relation to new globalized health challenges, such as type 2 diabetes. It identifies which professional groups have claimed responsibility for the tasks and by means of which kinds of interactions and infighting. The materials entail workplace-related artefacts and documents; in-depth interviews and extended conversations with health professionals about goals, dilemmas, and practices linked to prevention of lifestyle-related diseases; and site visits at Danish hospitals. Grounding Abbott’s framework of jurisdictions and his meso-level vocabulary in a situated account of professional boundary work, the analysis follows the ways that nurses in particular create, and sometimes stabilize or standardize, techniques for a disease prevention programme less than a decade old. The paper argues that processual theory of boundary work would benefit from grounding in a situated account of forms of professional boundaries within emerging jurisdictional tasks.

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