ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the literature on professions and practices. Expertise is not to the same extent sheltered against criticism as professionalism, that is, it often demonstrates a lower degree of institutionalization. In the literature, there are frequently three aspects of professional work being emphasized: first, professionals are using specialized forms of knowledge in their work; second, professional work is based on formal, often academic, credentials; and third, the entrance barriers to the profession are quite substantial and in many cases guarded by professional interest organizations. Sociological framework for the study of practice has been developed and applied to a series of cases by Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most influential sociologists in the post World War II period. Using the vocabulary developed in the chapter, the laboratory technicians were engaging in complex sociomaterial practices wherein advanced and highly specialized technologies and biological specimens are combined to produce inscriptions that are subject to scholarly analysis and reflections.
