In this paper we will present data from a case study, including four occupations, which represent different levels of professionalism, in terms of their professional autonomy, their scientific-cognitive bases, and their degree of subordination to the logics of management and bureaucracy within the organisations where they perform their tasks. The occupations chosen are social workers, human resource management personnel (HRM), policemen and sport managers (CSM). Two of these are exclusively employed in the public sector (policemen and social workers) and two are employed mainly in the non-public sectors (HRM and CSM). Two groups are trained in well-established professional programs in the Swedish university system (social work and HRM) while the training of the other two (police and CSM) are new to the University system.

The aim of the study focuses on the dilemmas of professionalism linked to the processes of making different occupational groups more academic. We will discuss key aspects of these occupations within a framework of the structure of the Swedish Professional Landscape. We focus on the similarities and differences among them, shaped by their different levels of acquired professionalism, their control over occupational niches, their perceived identity as an occupation/profession and the character of the scientific-cognitive basis for each group.

The case study consists of the four occupations described above and is based on (small) surveys of students.  They participated in the study as a) students in the beginning of their studies, and as b) working in their different occupations after taken their degrees. As a complement to the surveys a number of in – depth interviews has been conducted focusing the experiences of being and becoming a professional.