Professionals and the Professions in the Global South: An Introduction

In spite of the evident importance of professionals and the professions in the Global South, the sociological literature on the subject is almost entirely confined to the developed market economies. In turn, the North American literature on development has not filled the vacuum – as it has largely ignored the professions for the better part of the last half century. In this introduction, we offer a brief intellectual history of these two sub- disciplines and critically appraise this mutual neglect - of professionals in the sociology of development, and of the Global South in studies of professions. We then offer four realms of investigation where we believe the marriage of these two spheres of knowledge would be particularly useful: the relations between professionals and the state, the politicized nature of professions, the fragmentation of professions, and the transnationalized nature of professions.