ABSTRACT
The standardization or codification of professional knowledge is the basis on which a professional "commodity" can be made distinct and recognizable to the potential publics. The formalization of the cognitive base of a profession has a powerful effect on professional unification because it allows a deeper and more thorough standardization of the production of producers than would otherwise be possible. The general "crisis of legitimacy" analyzed by H. Jamous and B. Peloille, it illuminates the general dynamics of the professional structure: elements of cognitive rationality are used in a profession's project of market control, in its internal conflicts of power, and in its collective assertion of status. The core of the professionalization project is the production of professional producers; this process tends to be centered in and allied with the modern university. Traditional claims of disinterestedness and public service, integrated into the ideological model of profession, contradict the market orientation of the professional project.
