ABSTRACT
Pharmacy occupies an uneasy place in the sociology of health care occupations. The mainstream of the sociology of the professions, though, attention returned to the market situation of professionals. A profession was defined as an occupation occupying a particular kind of ecological niche. This was sometimes called a market shelter, an area of work where the occupation had secured a legal regime that gave it a privileged position in the market. As sociologists have frequently observed, however, the study of marginal cases may be particularly useful as a methodological tool for examining classificatory systems. The division of labour is one such system and occupations are the fundamental units. Some of these units are linked in higher-order groupings, of which 'the professions' is one. This chapter begins with a brief survey of the way sociologists have approached, and uses pharmacy as a case study in examining the relevance of these accounts.
