How social processes interact to form a professional service market

Using the case of the Chinese legal professions, a new article demonstrates the ambiguity and elasticity of social boundaries.

The piece shows how different forms of boundary work—the social process that produces class, racial, professional and other boundaries—are simultaneously going on in the state and the system of professions, and sometimes between them, which produce the social structure of a professional service market.

"We often assume that large social structures such as professions, markets, or the state are sophisticated and relatively stable, but this article shows the processual origins of these social structures in the dynamics of human interaction," said Dr. Sida Liu, author of the Symbolic Interaction article.

More information:
Liu, S. (2015), Boundary Work and Exchange: The Formation of a Professional Service Market. Symbolic Interaction. doi: 10.1002/symb.137

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