This study is based on doctors' experiences of the changing conditions in the workplace from a profession to the ongoing deprofessionalisation. Former studies suggests that medical professionals have undergone deprofessionalisation in the form of social changes. Our purpose with this paper is to find out the doctors’ experiences of the changing conditions. The empirical data consists of ten interviews with ten different doctors regarding their worklife experience from the medical profession.    The result indicate patterns of deprofessionalisation based on three social changes: 1. Knowledge society – the relationship between the doctor and the patient has changed because of the patient’s rights and the information society, which has led to the weakening of the doctors' exclusivity of the knowledge base. 2. New Public Management – new reforms in the form of bureaucracy and market management has entered the profession, and it has led to the weakening of the profession’s autonomy. 3. The attributes of the medical profession – the doctor’s coat has been a clear status symbol and distinction between doctors and outsiders, and the removal of the doctor’s coat has led to the reduced status of the profession.

Sedan början av 2000-talet kan man bli auktoriserad redovisningskonsult genom Srf konsulterna eller FAR. Syftet med auktorisationen är att höja kompetensen i branschen. Det har dock visat sig att det finns många olika åsikter och uppfattningar om auktorisationen för redovisningskonsulterna. Frågor och farhågor har på senare tid kommit upp om den kommer att finnas kvar, och om den ger något mervärde. Har auktorisationen helt enkelt spelat ut sin roll, eller står den inför samma förändringar som branschen gör. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka dels vilken inverkan som förändringarna i branschen får på yrkets auktorisation, och hur redovisningskonsultens yrkesutövning påverkas av de förändrade arbetssätten. För att uppfylla studiens syfte valdes metoden att använda en webbaserad enkät.  Frågorna i enkäten var tänkta att mäta de hypoteser som var uppsatta i studien, och som var kopplade till de två frågeställningar som studien var tänkt att ge svar på. Frågorna i enkäten hade till syfte att ta reda på hur betydelsefull respondenterna ansåg att auktorisationen är idag, kommer den vara betydelsefull även i framtiden och tror de att auktorisationen är viktig för deras kunder. De fick även svara på om de såg någon förändring i sin yrkesroll/arbetsuppgifter, om kunskapskraven ökat, och om de ansåg att kvalitén på deras arbete förändrats, sedan de börjat arbeta som redovisningskonsult och vad de i så fall trodde att den berodde på. De tillfrågade fick även svara på om de ansåg att kundernas krav, förväntningar och efterfrågan ökat sedan revisionsplikten avskaffades.  Sammanfattningsvis verkar det som att auktorisationen har mindre betydelse för kunderna än vad den har för branschen. Digitaliseringen har haft stor påverkan på redovisningsyrket, och kunskapskraven har ökat. Dock verkar avskaffandet av revisorsplikten inte inneburit någon större påverkan på varken kundernas krav eller efterfrågan på redovisningskonsulternas tjänster. Studien visade även att de som hade arbetat längst logiskt nog också såg mer förändringar än de som arbetat kortare tid. / Since the beginning of the 2000s, you can now become an authorized accounting consultant through the Srf konsulterna or FAR. The purpose of the authorization is to increase competence in the profession. However, it has been found that there are many different opinions and perceptions about the authorization of the accounting consultants. Questions and fears have recently arisen if it will remain and if it adds any value. Has the authorization simply played its part, or is it facing the same changes as the profession is making. The purpose of this study was to examine both the impact of changes the profession get for the authorization, and how the accounting consultant profession is affected by the changing ways of working. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, the method was chosen to use a web-based questionnaire. The questions in the survey were intended to measure the hypotheses that were set up in the study, and which were linked to the two questions that the study was intended to answer. The questionnaire aimed to find out how important the respondents felt that the authorization is today, will it be important in the future and if they believed that the authorization is important for their customers. They also had to answer if they saw any change in their profession/duties, if the proficiency had increased, and if they felt that the quality of their work had changed since they started to work as an accounting consultant and what they thought it was due to. The respondents also had to answer if they felt that customers' requirements, expectations and demand had increased since the audit duty was abolished. In summary, it seems that authorization is of less importance to customers than it is to the profession. Digitalization has had a major impact on the accounting profession, and proficiency have increased. However, the abolition of the auditor's duty does not appear to have had a major impact on neither the customer's requirements nor the demand for the accounting consultants' services. The study also showed that those who had worked the longest logically also saw more change than those who had worked for less time

Considered as the ―...central organizing method‖ (Fuss, 1991:1) in terms of gender and sexual orientation particularly in the Western world, the heterosexual/homosexual binary, emphasises the centrality of ―compulsory heterosexuality‖ (Rich, 1993:227) in the everyday lives of social and sexual actors. In doing this, homosexuality is not only differentiated from heterosexuality, but may rather be ‗banished‘ to a lower and subordinate stratum of so-called sexual ―respectability‖ (Rubin, 1993:13). Using it as a point of departure, this particular sociological inquiry sought to critically explore the influence of a binary logic on the identity construction of gay male academics and students in South African tertiary education. This study provides an in-depth qualitative discussion of the lived experiences of these men on university campuses in order to redress the limited focus on the subject matter in South African sociology. Informed by the metatheoretical principles of phenomenology and central features of a symbolic interactionist methodology, three specific subthemes guided the research. These included the rationalisation of sexual orientation, self-reflexivity and, as my inductive contribution, a consideration of the deprofessionalisation and/or professionalisation of the gay male academic identity in South African higher education. In adopting Jackson and Scott‘s (2010) conceptualisation of the rationalisation of sexuality, the study sought to explore its role in the identity construction of gay men through, amongst others, ―sexual scripting‖ (Gagnon & Simon, 1973), ―doing gender‖ (West & Zimmerman, 2002), ―using gender‖ (Johnson, 2009) as well as ―doing gay‖ (Dowsett et al., 2008), to (de)construct a ―gay sensibility‖ (cf. Seidman, 2002a) within and between their private and professional contexts. Secondly, such negotiation of their homosexual ―performativity‖ (Butler, 1990) presupposed an undeniable degree of ―reflexiveness‖ (cf. Mead, 1962) on the part of the gay male, to adhere to the expectations of other individuals in a specific social context. Given the findings from a thematic analysis of fifteen (15) in-depth interviews with academics and seven (7) with students, as well as two (2) self-administered questionnaires completed by academics and seventeen (17) by students, the influence of heteronormativity, heterosexism and homophobia, was again reiterated. The participants mostly opted to professionalise their gay male identities (thus differentiate between their private and academic gay male identity), regardless of the fact that their narratives reflected an internal diversity, plurality and potentially non-subordinate otherness, akin to Plummer‘s (1998b) reference to ―homosexualities‖ rather than only one homogenised version of ‗homosexuality‘. Their choice to do so was attributed to a conscious effort to either ‗pass‘ as heterosexual, assimilate into the dominant sexual and gendered culture of the campus, or conform to a stereotypical gay performance in homosexually-segregated academic departments because of anxiety, fear or shame. As such, the potential of mastering an uncategorised ‗queer‘ inclination in tertiary education, becomes all the more difficult, if not improbable. / PhD (Sociology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Considered as the ―...central organizing method‖ (Fuss, 1991:1) in terms of gender and sexual orientation particularly in the Western world, the heterosexual/homosexual binary, emphasises the centrality of ―compulsory heterosexuality‖ (Rich, 1993:227) in the everyday lives of social and sexual actors. In doing this, homosexuality is not only differentiated from heterosexuality, but may rather be ‗banished‘ to a lower and subordinate stratum of so-called sexual ―respectability‖ (Rubin, 1993:13). Using it as a point of departure, this particular sociological inquiry sought to critically explore the influence of a binary logic on the identity construction of gay male academics and students in South African tertiary education. This study provides an in-depth qualitative discussion of the lived experiences of these men on university campuses in order to redress the limited focus on the subject matter in South African sociology. Informed by the metatheoretical principles of phenomenology and central features of a symbolic interactionist methodology, three specific subthemes guided the research. These included the rationalisation of sexual orientation, self-reflexivity and, as my inductive contribution, a consideration of the deprofessionalisation and/or professionalisation of the gay male academic identity in South African higher education. In adopting Jackson and Scott‘s (2010) conceptualisation of the rationalisation of sexuality, the study sought to explore its role in the identity construction of gay men through, amongst others, ―sexual scripting‖ (Gagnon & Simon, 1973), ―doing gender‖ (West & Zimmerman, 2002), ―using gender‖ (Johnson, 2009) as well as ―doing gay‖ (Dowsett et al., 2008), to (de)construct a ―gay sensibility‖ (cf. Seidman, 2002a) within and between their private and professional contexts. Secondly, such negotiation of their homosexual ―performativity‖ (Butler, 1990) presupposed an undeniable degree of ―reflexiveness‖ (cf. Mead, 1962) on the part of the gay male, to adhere to the expectations of other individuals in a specific social context. Given the findings from a thematic analysis of fifteen (15) in-depth interviews with academics and seven (7) with students, as well as two (2) self-administered questionnaires completed by academics and seventeen (17) by students, the influence of heteronormativity, heterosexism and homophobia, was again reiterated. The participants mostly opted to professionalise their gay male identities (thus differentiate between their private and academic gay male identity), regardless of the fact that their narratives reflected an internal diversity, plurality and potentially non-subordinate otherness, akin to Plummer‘s (1998b) reference to ―homosexualities‖ rather than only one homogenised version of ‗homosexuality‘. Their choice to do so was attributed to a conscious effort to either ‗pass‘ as heterosexual, assimilate into the dominant sexual and gendered culture of the campus, or conform to a stereotypical gay performance in homosexually-segregated academic departments because of anxiety, fear or shame. As such, the potential of mastering an uncategorised ‗queer‘ inclination in tertiary education, becomes all the more difficult, if not improbable. / PhD (Sociology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014