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Professionalism and Professionalization in Russia
Within a sociological context, professionalism is increasingly examined on the macro level as a universal social phenomenon that is evolving in diverse ways throughout modern societies. Approaching professionalism from a phenomenological perspective entails investigating it at the micro level; such as examining group communication in the labor process, during which meanings are produced that are shared by members of a professional group. The professionalism and professionalization in Russia are presented in this entry within the theoretical framework known as the “critical ecology of the professions”; a research direction that seeks to reconcile the macro and micro levels of professionalism and combine wider views of certain institutional universals with knowledge of local cultural contexts and the specific contexts of various occupational groups. This approach combines the theoretical lens of critical ecology with a neo-Weberian stance that understands professionalism as emerging from a system of arguments that support the upward mobility of members of a particular occupation. The professionalization here is treated as a fluid and multifaceted phenomenon. The authors show how the processes behind it have evolved across the shifting contexts of prerevolutionary, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia.