Are platforms changing professionalism?

The main objective of this chapter is to analyse how the digital revolution intertwines with the processes that are transformingprofessionalism. In particular, we focus on the relationship between professional work and the transition to a new socio-technicalsystem that has been defined as the platform paradigm or platform economy . We focus on the “within” dimension of thetransformation of professionalism. From the data collected, despite the platform work debate often being centred on low-skilledmanual workers, such as food delivery workers or couriers, it is clear that the professional services market represents asignificant share of platform work. Our findings confirm the hypothesis that platform work, rather than being itself the driver ofthe processes that are transforming professions, is a mechanism that reinforces dynamics that are already in place in the expertlabour segment, and that this leads to the emergence of what may be termed “platform professionalism” as a variant oforganisational professionalism.