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Old 7th Aug 2013, 15:08
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Archimedes
 
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Tom, sorry - that's a typo on my part.

The definition, as I understand it, is that professionalisation creates a divide between the 'knowledge-authorities' (I think normal people might use, say, 'experts') and 'outsiders' (i.e. the non-experts). I edited that bit but left 'between' in there. I think the fact that I missed it despite reading through says something about the sphincter-tightening lack of clarity in that sort of language, since it isn't instantly jarring if you have just written - or, in effect, thrown a series of words onto the page - it...

A cynic (why, yes, that might be me) might suggest that the use of obtuse language like that is to create a divide between sociologists and the rest of us.

ExAscoteer - sorry, but it does exist in English, since sociologists use it widely. It may not be in the OED, but there are a lot of words that aren't in the OED, hence the excited articles in the Telegraph telling us which words have been added and sometimes which words have been dropped. If a word is in use, it exists. Whether it should be in use, or should exist is another issue...
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