
In an Age of Experts
The Changing Roles of Professionals in Politics and Public Life
Steven Brint(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 31. July 1994
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-691-03399-0 (ISBN)
Description
Since the 1960s, the number of highly educated professionals in America has grown dramatically. During this time, scholars and journalists have described the group as exercising increasing influence over cultural values and public affairs. The rise of this "new class" has been greeted with idealistic hope or ideological suspicion on both the right and the left. This study challenges these characterizations, showing how claims about the distinctive politics and values of the professional stratum have been overstated, and that the political preferences of professionals are much more closely linked to those of business owners and executives than has been commonly assumed. Drawing on extensive empirical and historical research, the author argues that the professions have splintered along demographic and economic fault lines and have, thereby, lost most of their political force. In addition, the old model of professionals as social trustees whose work contributes first and foremost to the social good has given way to an increasingly exclusive emphasis on market-oriented technical expertise.
Brint concludes that this movement away from "social trustee professionalism" toward an "expert professionalism" tends to weaken the fabric of American democracy.
Brint concludes that this movement away from "social trustee professionalism" toward an "expert professionalism" tends to weaken the fabric of American democracy.
Reviews / Votes
"Brint's important book ... tackles very large and complex questions about the changing roles of the professions in advanced capitalist societies.... It continues lines of analysis that have been pursued since the classic turn-of-the-century works of sociology, and it does so with great success." * Contemporary Sociology *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
539 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-03399-0 (9780691033990)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2021
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€56.99
Available for download
Person
Steven Brint is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. He is the coauthor, with Jerome Karabel, of the award-winning study The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985.