2018, issue 42, Christiane Schnell and Helena Hirvonen: Professions represent an essential feature of modern societies by maintaining core societal values and engaging in problem-solving in areas such as health, law and education. However, during the last decades the appeal of professionalism, associated with autonomy, discretion and a privileged status, has diffused greatly in the field of service work. Professionalism now seems to be everywhere while the ‘classic professions’ such as medicine and the juridical profession are confronted with serious structural changes.