Abstract

Over the past 10 years, the literature on medical professionalism has suggested, on the one hand, the hypothesis of the decline of professional dominance and, on the other, that of a progressive deprofessionalisation process. Following this debate means to wonder about the new social relationships that forge the medical practice. If Elias's (2010) teaching is accepted, professional changes should be viewed as the result of interdependencies that link the profession to patients, families, communities and user associations, as well as to all care practitioners, without disregarding the importance of the links that are created within the institutional and organizational contexts in which care and cure activities take place. Starting from this basis, the article will first try to develop a research question and an analytical tool in order to understand the new course of medical professionalism. Next, they will be applied to the Italian context, where structural changes mingle and confuse with the difficulties coming from both cuts in health spending and all regulatory measures that have been taken in response to the economic crisis that started in 2008.