To base an analysis of professionalization in terms of the ‘truth’ or ‘falsehood’ of claims to independence, etc. risks the adoption of an uncritical stance towards the role of professional ideology which is reduced, in this formulation, to a receptacle of ‘false consciousness’ (Larrain, 1979; Thompson, 1984). By suspending the category of truth we can concentrate on the ‘truth-effects’ of ideology expressed through discourse (Foucault, 1981). Instead of simply dismissing ideology as ‘wrong’ , or indeed accepting professional claims at face value, we can explore how it plays a productive role in organizing and legitimising relations.
