Current Sociology http://csi.sagepub.com/ Shifting Heuristics in the Sociological Approach to Professional Trustworthiness : The Sociology of Science
Vittorio Olgiati Current Sociology 2006 54: 533 DOI: 10.1177/0011392106065085 The online version of this article can be found at: http://csi.sagepub.com/content/54/4/533

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Shifting Heuristics in the Sociological Approach to Professional Trustworthiness
CS
The Sociology of Science
Vittorio Olgiati
University of Urbino

abstract: The aim of this article is to raise social-scientific awareness about the growing disenchantment with basic assumptions about the progressive outcomes of western-styled ‘modernity’ and ‘modernization’ and how western society is standing up to such a disquieting historical trajectory and facing the challenge of other emerging models. As there is no doubt that only a substantial cultural change could counteract the trend, the article deals with that part of the western epistemic community that embodies the highest cultural capital, namely learned professions, by asking what theoretical and practical limits are they reaching? Are they accountable for the ongoing general situation? Are their knowledge, commitment and performance socially adequate? If not, do professional work, action and trustworthiness require new analytical, social and moral foundations? A plausible answer to these questions seems to be offered by the abandonment of traditionally dominant