Professions and the Public Interest

Presents a new framework and methodology for researching and assessing professional groups in relation to the public interest.
The importance and influence of professions in public life has grown increasingly over the 20th century, but the question of whether they subordinate their own self-interests to the public interest has yet to be adequately researched within a major sociological perspective. In "Professions and the Public Interest", Mike Saks develops a theoretical and methodological framework for assessing professional groups in Western society. The empirical applicability of this framework is illustrated with reference to health care, focusing particularly on a novel case study of the response of the medical profession to acupuncture in 19th and 20th century Britain. Does the predominant climate of medical rejection of acupuncture, and many complementary forms of medicine, run counter to the public interest? Has this rejection been heavily influenced by professional self-interest? By considering the implications of this case study for the accountability of the medical profession, Mike Saks makes broader recommendations about the direction of research into the relationship between the public and professions in this academically and politically important subject.