ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the motivations, elements and outcomes of professionalisation at various times and places, and discusses the key institutions involved in initiating, supporting, opposing and otherwise shaping professionalisation processes. It mainly deals with early episodes of professionalisation and considers professional associations as the main vehicle for the achievement of accountants' professional projects. Richardson's analysis of the period 1879-1979 provides an overview of professionalisation as the ultimate outcome of a competition between accountants' associations marked by an escalating commitment to professional standards and symbolism. The major elements of accountancy professionalisation projects in America have been identified in the research literature, albeit in less detail than for Britain. The accountancy professionalisation literature now includes a substantial number of historical, context-sensitive case studies of a professional projects pursued across the world at a various times.
