Feigning Incompetence in the Field

A basic feature of professions is specialized competence. Indeed, expertise grants pro­fessions and their members privileged, prestigious, and protected statuses. Members of professions thus face interactional pressure to appear competent in encounters with colleagues, clients, and lay publics, demo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Qualitative sociology review : QSR 2020-04, Vol.16 (2), p.62-74
Main Author: McLuhan, Arthur
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behaviorism
Competence
Ethnographers
ethnography
Grants
impression management
Medical students
Medicine
Occupational roles
Professionalization
Professions
Social Sciences
work, occupations, and professions
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Summary:A basic feature of professions is specialized competence. Indeed, expertise grants pro­fessions and their members privileged, prestigious, and protected statuses. Members of professions thus face interactional pressure to appear competent in encounters with colleagues, clients, and lay publics, demonstrating that they, indeed, have the particular competencies expected of and associat­ed with their position. For example, in a classic study of professionalization, Jack Haas and William Shaffir examine how medical students adopt a cloak of competence—presenting more-than-fully-able selves—in their training and work to convince gatekeepers, each other, and patients that they have the ability to do medicine. Similar competence-enhancing presentations are evident in other professions. However, a related dramaturgical phenomenon remains neglected: adopting a cloak of incompetence—presenting less-than-fully-able selves—in performing the professional role. Using the ethnographer’s work as an illustrative case, the following paper examines this other side of managing professional competence.
ISSN:1733-8077
1733-8077
DOI:10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.06