The World of Professions in the Context of Work and Employment: Pandemic and Digital Vertigo

Abstract

This article is an Introduction to the special issue of the journal, which is focused on the recent transformations of professions and occupations. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the contemporary social, technological, and economic context, in which Russian professions and occupations are, and to review the latest research in this field conducted both in Russia and abroad. First, we identify key modern challenges to professionalism, including the volatility of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on professional work, the development of digital labor platforms, and how the state and management react to all of these. Next, we provide an overview of some latest research on professions and professionalism. We suggest that the sociology of professions, as an independent disciplinary field, is currently in crisis. This is because the established theoretical models of professionalism are being questioned by the rapidly changing structure of professional employment, methods of control and management of professional work, as well as transformations of the content of this work. In particular, we consider the concepts of “connecting professionalism” and “client professionalism” and show how contemporary professions form their institutional identity in organizational and managerial contexts. Then, in this context, we provide a brief review of the articles that are published in this special issue. Finally, we discuss some possible directions for future research on professions and professionalism, with a special focus on the digitalization process and the pandemic crisis.