I’ve been very pleased—and, to be frank, happily surprised—by the large number of public and personal responses to my essay “Is There a Future for the Professions? An Interim Verdict.” Initially, I thought that I would write a single omnibus essay, commenting succinctly on the various points that have been raised. But by virtue of the number and variety of comments, I realized that a single response would either ignore many of the points or dwarf the original essay in length! Instead, I have posted a series of blogs, each directed to a single issue or a closely related set of issues.
Here’s the outline of posts:
Posting #1 What Are Professions, and Where Do They Come From?
Posting #2 What’s Good and What’s Bad about the Professions as Currently Constituted?
Posting #3 What’s Confusing about the Professions?
Posting #4 Disruption #1: Markets
Posting #5 Disruption #2: Digital Technology
Posting #6 Revisiting the Arguments of Richard and Daniel Susskind
Posting #7 Disaggregating the Professions: Comments on the Law
Posting #8 Disaggregating the Professions: General Comments
Posting #9 A Global (as Opposed to American) Perspective
Posting #10 Next Steps, Including Positive Resolutions
Often my postings include direct responses to points made by commentators. In the spirit of a blog (as opposed to a scholarly paper), I do not cite specific comments or references but acknowledge the individuals whose comments were particularly germane to that blog. Apologies if I miss any names.
I welcome additional comments on this series of postings and may address these additional comments in future postings. I hope that, taken together, the original essay, responses, and postings will function as a text on the nature of the professions, their current challenges, and their future course.