ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the extent to which new professions can emerge to take account of the specialization in expert knowledge. It analyses the complex way in which location within a social field affects the capacity of actors to exert or respond to change. The chapter argues that location at the edge of law can be indicative of agency, or can confirm marginalization and, in the case of some professional actors, both. It provides a case-study of the Society for Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP) to analyse the complexity of field position and the relationship between institutional entrepreneurship and traditional, collective models of professional advancement. The chapter also explores the extent to which STEP is formalizing its jurisdictional claim for control of accredited expertise in global wealth-structuring services. Lounsbury argues that professionalization claims are likely to occur during periods of institutional transformation, and external changes can disrupt settled jurisdictions within the system of the professions.
