Mike Saks
Biographic Data
| ID | 266776 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mike Saks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mike |
| FAMILY NAME | Saks |
| SIGNATURE | SAKS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Suffolk |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2718-7667 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 116 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Professionals and Volunteers
In sociological research on relationships between professionals and volunteers, professionals are often contrasted with volunteers as abstracted, distinct and homogeneous groups. Focusing on healthcare in selected modern societies, and adopting a neo-Weberian and complementary boundary work perspective, this essay argues the landscape is more complex than between paid groups with exclusionary social closure and the unwaged in the market. First, d…
Social Closure and Veterinary Professionalization in Britain
The professionalization of veterinary medicine in Britain has been little studied by social scientists, although as a classic instance of an occupation that has achieved exclusionary social closure it merits examination from a neo-Weberian perspective. Therefore, this paper explores how it has attained this position through state action in an historical and contemporary context using neo-Weberianism as a theoretical lens. In charting the differen…
Neo-Weberianism and the Professions
В статье обсуждаются аргументы в пользу важности неовеберианского подхода к профессиям как к особому виду занятий. Показана возросшая роль профессий в изменчивом современном мире. Многие теоретические работы о сути и роли профессий были написаны в Великобритании и США, однако сейчас это направление расширяет границы, охватывая другие страны Европы и мира. Теория социологии профессий зародилась в 1950–1960-х гг. на основе двух подходов: определени…
Neo-Weberianism, Professional Formation and the State
This paper outlines a neo-Weberian approach to state-sponsored social closure in professional formation. Despite its advantages, state decision-making is not typically well-defined or examined in neo-Weberian analyses. Neo-Weberianism is differentiated from Max Weber’s own work on social action and rationality, which generally provides a more subtle interpretation of state socio-political processes. The paper explores how policy formation can be …
The Anthem Companion to Talcott Parsons
Susan E. Cayleff, Nature’s Path
This well-written and researched book by Susan Cayleff, a professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University, traces the labyrinthine history of naturopathy in the USA from its nineteenth-century origins to the present day. As such, it sheds light on the developing philosophy of a populist alternative medical approach based on prevention and healthy living, which positively links mind, body and spirit—as well as encompas…
Professions and Metaphors
Inequalities, marginality and the professions
Professional ideologies generally commit to addressing inequalities among clients and/or the public as part of their altruistic ethos. Sociologists of professions in the Anglo-American context have written on the extent to which this commitment is honoured by professional groups, either in a positive or more critical light. This article, however, argues that professions cannot be conceptualised as equal, homogeneous entities and are best seen as …
Understanding the Relationship Between Alternative Medicine and Biomedicine in Israel
Defining a Profession
The paper highlights the importance of resurrecting the debate about how to define a profession. The drive to define a profession is traced back to the taxonomic approach – encompassing the work of trait and functionalist writers – in which professions were seen as possessing unique and positive characteristics, including distinctive knowledge and expertise. A range of critical challenges to this approach are then considered, particularly as they…
Analyzing the Professions
This paper makes the case for the neo-Weberian approach for analyzing the professions. It starts by reviewing the difficulties of other main approaches to the sociology of professions - including the trait approach, functionalism, interactionism, Marxism and Foucauldianism. It is argued that the issues they pose are largely addressed by the neo-Weberian approach, the key features of which are outlined and illustrated with reference to the pivotal…
Professional Governance and Public Control
Governments across the western world face new demands to achieve greater efficiency and responsiveness in public services. The transformations are most radical and challenging in healthcare where both cost effectiveness and patient safety are major issues. Drawing on the National Health Service in the UK and the corporatist system in Germany, this article compares the dynamics of changing governance and public control in the context of different …
Social Policy, Professional Regulation and Health Support Work in the United Kingdom
This paper examines the neglected area of health support work in the United Kingdom in the context of recent social policy and studies of professionalisation. A variety of socio-economic trends have led policy makers to give greater consideration to this section of the healthcare workforce. Professional regulatory issues and recent reviews in the health field have provided the leverage to alter existing healthcare boundaries, as well as to enhanc…
Orthodox and Alternative Medicine
Saks traces the evolution of the Anglo-British medical profession, and notes where their traditions converge and diverge. While the health care politics discussed are British-accented, many of the issues and trends treated are shared (e.g. alternative medicine's marginal status, emergence of a biomedical counter-culture, and government review)
Orthodox and Alternative Medicine Politics Professionization and Health Care
Alternative Medicine and the Health Care Division of Labour
Consumer interest in alternative medicine has expanded greatly in western societies in recent years. This has been associated, among other things, with the rapid growth of the numbers and range of practitioners of such therapies. This article discusses from a neo-Weberian perspective the present influence of this development on the nature and form of the health care division of labour, with special reference to such trends as the increasing profe…
Professions and the Public Interest
In Care of the State
Removing the Blinkers? A Critique of Recent Contributions to the Sociology of Professions
Profession and Monopoly
A comparative study is always a valuable form of investigation, and here the author, who is trained in medicine and sociology, examines the two medical professions in terms ofeconomic and political strategies in the period since the creation ofthe London College of Physicians in 1518.He is concerned to know how doctors have built up their profession, and the opposition to them of various social constraints, that is, the insti- tutionalization oft…
Neo-Weberianism and changing state-profession relations
Professions now operate in a more critical modern Western societal context. This has typically led to a major political challenge by the state to the self-regulation of such groups. It is argued, though, that the reasons for this are more complex than a knee-jerk reaction to the growing number of emerging professional scandals. Accordingly, tools are provided from a neo-Weberian perspective to analyse changes in state-profession relations — bring…
Removing the Blinkers? A Critique of Recent Contributions to the Sociology of Professions
Analyzing the Professions
This paper makes the case for the neo-Weberian approach for analyzing the professions. It starts by reviewing the difficulties of other main approaches to the sociology of professions - including the trait approach, functionalism, interactionism, Marxism and Foucauldianism. It is argued that the issues they pose are largely addressed by the neo-Weberian approach, the key features of which are outlined and illustrated with reference to the pivotal…
Alternative Medicine and the Health Care Division of Labour
Consumer interest in alternative medicine has expanded greatly in western societies in recent years. This has been associated, among other things, with the rapid growth of the numbers and range of practitioners of such therapies. This article discusses from a neo-Weberian perspective the present influence of this development on the nature and form of the health care division of labour, with special reference to such trends as the increasing profe…
Neo-Weberianism, Professional Formation and the State
This paper outlines a neo-Weberian approach to state-sponsored social closure in professional formation. Despite its advantages, state decision-making is not typically well-defined or examined in neo-Weberian analyses. Neo-Weberianism is differentiated from Max Weber’s own work on social action and rationality, which generally provides a more subtle interpretation of state socio-political processes. The paper explores how policy formation can be …
Social Policy, Professional Regulation and Health Support Work in the United Kingdom
This paper examines the neglected area of health support work in the United Kingdom in the context of recent social policy and studies of professionalisation. A variety of socio-economic trends have led policy makers to give greater consideration to this section of the healthcare workforce. Professional regulatory issues and recent reviews in the health field have provided the leverage to alter existing healthcare boundaries, as well as to enhanc…
Professional Governance and Public Control
Governments across the western world face new demands to achieve greater efficiency and responsiveness in public services. The transformations are most radical and challenging in healthcare where both cost effectiveness and patient safety are major issues. Drawing on the National Health Service in the UK and the corporatist system in Germany, this article compares the dynamics of changing governance and public control in the context of different …
Inequalities, marginality and the professions
Professional ideologies generally commit to addressing inequalities among clients and/or the public as part of their altruistic ethos. Sociologists of professions in the Anglo-American context have written on the extent to which this commitment is honoured by professional groups, either in a positive or more critical light. This article, however, argues that professions cannot be conceptualised as equal, homogeneous entities and are best seen as …
Neo-Weberianism and changing state-profession relations
Professions now operate in a more critical modern Western societal context. This has typically led to a major political challenge by the state to the self-regulation of such groups. It is argued, though, that the reasons for this are more complex than a knee-jerk reaction to the growing number of emerging professional scandals. Accordingly, tools are provided from a neo-Weberian perspective to analyse changes in state-profession relations — bring…
Neo-Weberianism and changing state-profession relations
Professions now operate in a more critical modern Western societal context. This has typically led to a major political challenge by the state to the self-regulation of such groups. It is argued, though, that the reasons for this are more complex than a knee-jerk reaction to the growing number of emerging professional scandals. Accordingly, tools are provided from a neo-Weberian perspective to analyse changes in state-profession relations — bring…
Profession and Monopoly
A comparative study is always a valuable form of investigation, and here the author, who is trained in medicine and sociology, examines the two medical professions in terms ofeconomic and political strategies in the period since the creation ofthe London College of Physicians in 1518.He is concerned to know how doctors have built up their profession, and the opposition to them of various social constraints, that is, the insti- tutionalization oft…
Removing the Blinkers? A Critique of Recent Contributions to the Sociology of Professions
In Care of the State
Professions and the Public Interest
Alternative Medicine and the Health Care Division of Labour
Consumer interest in alternative medicine has expanded greatly in western societies in recent years. This has been associated, among other things, with the rapid growth of the numbers and range of practitioners of such therapies. This article discusses from a neo-Weberian perspective the present influence of this development on the nature and form of the health care division of labour, with special reference to such trends as the increasing profe…
Orthodox and Alternative Medicine Politics Professionization and Health Care
Orthodox and Alternative Medicine
Saks traces the evolution of the Anglo-British medical profession, and notes where their traditions converge and diverge. While the health care politics discussed are British-accented, many of the issues and trends treated are shared (e.g. alternative medicine's marginal status, emergence of a biomedical counter-culture, and government review)
Social Policy, Professional Regulation and Health Support Work in the United Kingdom
This paper examines the neglected area of health support work in the United Kingdom in the context of recent social policy and studies of professionalisation. A variety of socio-economic trends have led policy makers to give greater consideration to this section of the healthcare workforce. Professional regulatory issues and recent reviews in the health field have provided the leverage to alter existing healthcare boundaries, as well as to enhanc…
Professional Governance and Public Control
Governments across the western world face new demands to achieve greater efficiency and responsiveness in public services. The transformations are most radical and challenging in healthcare where both cost effectiveness and patient safety are major issues. Drawing on the National Health Service in the UK and the corporatist system in Germany, this article compares the dynamics of changing governance and public control in the context of different …
Analyzing the Professions
This paper makes the case for the neo-Weberian approach for analyzing the professions. It starts by reviewing the difficulties of other main approaches to the sociology of professions - including the trait approach, functionalism, interactionism, Marxism and Foucauldianism. It is argued that the issues they pose are largely addressed by the neo-Weberian approach, the key features of which are outlined and illustrated with reference to the pivotal…
Defining a Profession
The paper highlights the importance of resurrecting the debate about how to define a profession. The drive to define a profession is traced back to the taxonomic approach – encompassing the work of trait and functionalist writers – in which professions were seen as possessing unique and positive characteristics, including distinctive knowledge and expertise. A range of critical challenges to this approach are then considered, particularly as they…
Understanding the Relationship Between Alternative Medicine and Biomedicine in Israel
Inequalities, marginality and the professions
Professional ideologies generally commit to addressing inequalities among clients and/or the public as part of their altruistic ethos. Sociologists of professions in the Anglo-American context have written on the extent to which this commitment is honoured by professional groups, either in a positive or more critical light. This article, however, argues that professions cannot be conceptualised as equal, homogeneous entities and are best seen as …
Professions and Metaphors
Susan E. Cayleff, Nature’s Path
This well-written and researched book by Susan Cayleff, a professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University, traces the labyrinthine history of naturopathy in the USA from its nineteenth-century origins to the present day. As such, it sheds light on the developing philosophy of a populist alternative medical approach based on prevention and healthy living, which positively links mind, body and spirit—as well as encompas…
The Anthem Companion to Talcott Parsons
Neo-Weberianism, Professional Formation and the State
This paper outlines a neo-Weberian approach to state-sponsored social closure in professional formation. Despite its advantages, state decision-making is not typically well-defined or examined in neo-Weberian analyses. Neo-Weberianism is differentiated from Max Weber’s own work on social action and rationality, which generally provides a more subtle interpretation of state socio-political processes. The paper explores how policy formation can be …
Social Closure and Veterinary Professionalization in Britain
The professionalization of veterinary medicine in Britain has been little studied by social scientists, although as a classic instance of an occupation that has achieved exclusionary social closure it merits examination from a neo-Weberian perspective. Therefore, this paper explores how it has attained this position through state action in an historical and contemporary context using neo-Weberianism as a theoretical lens. In charting the differen…
Neo-Weberianism and the Professions
В статье обсуждаются аргументы в пользу важности неовеберианского подхода к профессиям как к особому виду занятий. Показана возросшая роль профессий в изменчивом современном мире. Многие теоретические работы о сути и роли профессий были написаны в Великобритании и США, однако сейчас это направление расширяет границы, охватывая другие страны Европы и мира. Теория социологии профессий зародилась в 1950–1960-х гг. на основе двух подходов: определени…
Professionals and Volunteers
In sociological research on relationships between professionals and volunteers, professionals are often contrasted with volunteers as abstracted, distinct and homogeneous groups. Focusing on healthcare in selected modern societies, and adopting a neo-Weberian and complementary boundary work perspective, this essay argues the landscape is more complex than between paid groups with exclusionary social closure and the unwaged in the market. First, d…
Sociology (16 works) · Political science (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Social science (11 works) · Health care (7 works) · Management and Organizational Studies (6 works) · Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (5 works) · Economics (5 works)