Institutional theory has recently been used in the study of professions. Some argue that especially neo-institutional theory can bridge the functionalistic and conflict-oriented traditions in professional theory and help develop professional theory (Muzio, Brock & Suddaby 2013). Previous research has pointed to the institutional embeddedness of professions and how professionalization processes are circumscribed and enabled by institutions such as the state, higher education, labor-market and businesses or organizational forms, forms of expertise and professional praxis. Institutional theory might help explain how the configuration of institutions changes and what consequences are produced from those changes – consequences such as eroded or relegated autonomy over jurisdiction, self-governance, discretion and control to other actors. 

The purpose of this study is twofold: First, to describe how the profession(s) of Swedish engineers and their organizations historically have related to different institutions and their effects on professional development, and secondly a humbler purpose is to critically propose some theoretical developments to the neo-institutional theory on professions.