The assault on the professions and the restructuring of academic and professional identities: a Bernsteinian analysis

This paper draws upon a range of ideas and concepts developed by the British sociologist Basil Bernstein to examine recent challenges and changes encountered by members of professional occupations, including those who teach and research in higher education. The paper discusses and seeks to develop Bernstein's analysis of how particular structurings of knowledge may be related to the formation of occupational identities centred in what Bernstein refers to as ‘inwardness’ and ‘inner dedication’. It then examines a range of challenges to such identities—particularly those arising from the ‘regionalisation’ of knowledge and from ‘genericim’. The paper concludes by assessing the prospects for perpetuating such identities in an era of increasing marketization and managerialism.