ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses variety of professional associations, particularly referencing the most important types, the self-regulating bodies, and the international professional associations as organisations with an increasingly prominent role in regulation. It highlights the contemporary challenges professional associations face: the emergence of new professional associations based on interprofessional interactions, the role of supranational governance agencies in professionalisation, the difficulties raised by international labour organisations and the consequences of new public management to professional surveillance. When Robert D. Putnam wrote the famous book Bowling Alone, in which he states that America has been losing association members, the only exception seemed to be professional associations. The scarce literature on professional associations primarily refers to the Anglo-Saxon context to the detriment of other regions of the world. Professional associations constitute one of the fastest-growing non-governmental organizations (NGO). Encouraged by an integrated view and driven by problem-solving, in particular supranational public agencies and interdisciplinary NGOs may end up jeopardising the monopoly of professional associations.
