10

Engineers of human

souls, faceless

technocrats, or

merchants of

morality?: changing

professional forms

and identities in

the face of the

neo-liberal challenge

Michael I. Reed

Introduction

Contemporary social science and social commentary are dominated by an
incurably pessimistic metaphysical pathos over the ‘professional society or
state’ (Perkin 1989). Although professions have been under attack, from one
ideological direction or another, the virulence of contemporary critiques of
the inherent immorality of unaccountable professional power reflects deeper
structural movements and political shifts that seem to sound the death knell
of professionalism. Not only are they now seen as a ‘conspiracy against the
laity’, but they are also charged with the ultimate sin in the ‘age of enter-
prise’. Professions are considered as constituting a fundamental institutional
obstacle to market-led reforms, indeed transformations, in the way that expert
knowledge and work are organized and controlled. Quasi-monopoly control
over the institutionalized provision of specialized knowledge and skill is now
understood to be inimical to the efficient and effective operation of expert
labour markets dedicated to satisfying customer demand and need.