A Professional Association as Network and Communicating Node: The Pharmaceutical Society of Australasia, 1857–1918

In: Australian economic history review: an Asia-Pacific journal of economic, business & social history, Band 39, Heft 3, S. 258-283

Abstract

This paper explicitly examines the communicating processes that conditioned the dynamic interaction between recognized norms and legislative activity affecting the professional development of pharmacists. The Pharmaceutical Society of Australasia successfully developed communication channels, exploited recognized models, and created institutional constructs. In contrast to much of the literature which attributes professionalization to the pursuit of a single aim, this study found that the PSA sought to achieve a wide range of objectives and that having a broad agenda was to its advantage. The PSA succeeded in shaping the public conceptions of the profession in order to influence an emerging regulatory regime.