The Control of Knowledge: The Power of the Helping Professions

Abstract

The basis of professional power is not knowledge itself but the control of knowledge. Historically, the helping professions have been mandated and licensed by society-have been given the reins of expert authority-to define who is deviant, ill, or needy and who is entitled to what help in the promotion of human welfare. While on one hand the helping professions today have a vested interest in maintaining a commodity concept of their services, on the other hand, they have, by the very nature of their service policies, deprived their clients of their rights as consumers, argues the author. If a community wishes to reduce the power of the helping professions it will have to break up their monopolistic control. If the institutions of professionalism-its educational systems and organizations-were compelled to share their power with society, it would inevitably result in the democratization of knowledge and a new social contract between the professions and society. The potential for such a counter-force already exists in the demands for accountability and control by local communities of the poor, the blacks, the students, and the paraprofessional movement.

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