ABSTRACT
Everett Hughes has set before us three occupational models: science, business, and profession. 1 Of particular interest is his contrast between science and profession, which contradicts most usage in sociology and which has analytical consequences of some importance. He sees science as the pursuit of knowledge, its value hinging on convincing communication to colleagues. He sees profession as the giving of an esoteric service to a client who “has met a problem which he cannot himself handle. 2 Thus, the prime structural difference between profession and science is that one has a lay clientele and the other does not. From that difference flow consequences that negate the importance to analysis of what both have in common—the exercise of what is considered some esoteric knowledge, skill, or expertise.
