Toward the construction of a profession’s boundaries: Creating a networking agenda
研究通过分析以色列建国前犹太法律职业的案例，揭示新兴职业群体如何通过成员互动隐性地构建边界议程，对职业社会学和边界研究有参考价值。
Attention to the boundaries of an organization or profession is an essential precursor to facilitating boundary-spanning activities. We follow a four-stage process model of constructing boundaries to delimit a profession’s membership and domain prior to its recognition as an institutionalized entity. A set of networking activities forms the basis of boundary construction, yet identifying and prioritizing which activities to pursue is a challenge that can jeopardize the success of an aspiring group. We use a case study of the emerging Jewish legal profession in pre-state Israel to analyze how an agenda for creating membership and domain boundaries implicitly surfaces through interactions among members of the new group. We employ content analysis of a key meeting transcript and network analytical methods to reveal a shared cognitive map of priorities. The study adds to the literature on professional boundaries and demonstrates the utility of an innovative qualitative-quantitative research approach.