Trans-local professional projects: Re-scaling the linked ecology of expert jurisdictions

Four researchers from the Department of Sociology have recently contributed to the Journal of Professions and Organization. Associate Professor Anders Blok has together with his fellow colleagues, Postdoc Maria Duclos Lindstrøm, PhD student Marie Leth Meilvang, and Associate Professor Inge Kryger Pedersen written the article ‘Trans-local professional projects: Re-scaling the linked ecology of expert jurisdictions.’ In the article, they examine how to conceptualize the trans-local arenas, wherein contemporary professional projects compete for expert jurisdiction, organizational change, and wider policy reform.

Based on reviews of three important contributing literatures, the article argues that Andrew Abbott’s core topological notion of ‘linked ecology,’ understood as differentiated and competitive arenas for professional claims- and alliance-making, has certain advantages when it comes to re-scaling and specifying the trans-local character of many contemporary professional projects. This conceptual and methodological argument has been developed in connection with an on-going comparative research project on how professional groups in Denmark compete and cooperate for local organizational change in relation to border-transcending challenges of climate adaptation, lifestyle-related diseases, and economic innovation. By mapping the three case histories in terms of their patterns of local–transnational relations, the authors conclude their article with a specification of some of the methodological challenges for a qualitative and comparative study aiming to capture emerging and variable modalities of trans-local professional projects.

Anders Blok, Maria Duclos Lindstrøm, Marie Leth Meilvang & Inge Kryger Pedersen, Trans-local professional projects: Re-scaling the linked ecology of expert jurisdictions, Journal of Professions and Organizations, April 2018.