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Reflecting on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power, the aim of our study was todetermine the degree to which prestige ranking follows a logic of socialrecognition that transcends health professional group boundaries. Based on aprevious cross-sectional survey, in which 605 health professionals ranked 19diseases and 17 specialties, this paper draws on data from 25 in-depthinterviews with nurses, doctors and nursing/medical students with theobjective to understand to what degree each of the four groups dissociatesthemselves from the prestige ranking demonstrated in the survey. We foundthat all four groups have similar perceptions of prestige. However, whiledoctors and nurses defend the hierarchy of specialisations in medicine,medical students and nursing students to a greater degree challenge the statusquo. This has no real impact, as their dissenting opinions are articulated frompositions defined by their rank in the distribution of capital. Therefore, thesepositions cannot significantly threaten the stability of the healthcare field.
Hindhede et al. (Mon,) studied this question.