Accessing a profession in the Third sector organisations: a Portuguese case study

Abstract

Research on professional logics in a multidisciplinary work team has already pointed out jurisdiction conflicts, obstacles to the professional recognition of expertise and pressure for interchangeability of academic training areas, namely among social sciences and humanities graduates. Furthermore, these “professionals of knowledge” have been suffering an increase in contractual dependency and precariousness of their professional situation, which explains the presence of subordination and hierarchical control forms in diversified organisational contexts. Rather than a strict opposition between a professional logic and a managerial one, an increased hybridisation concerning professional performance and employment arrangements challenges us to a critical debate on heterogeneous and segmented patterns of professionalisation and precariousness in the third sector organisations. Based on the articulation of two dimensions, namely social regulation and professional mobility, four “ideal-types” of social forms were defined: professional markets, internal markets, transitional markets and secondary markets. This paper seeks to present this typology and explore the associated assumptions linked with diverse and unequal positions and status in accessing a profession in the context of third sector organisations in Portugal.