Dear all, The forthcoming ISA RC 52 Sociology of Professional Groups interim conference will be held in Ipswitch, UK, 11-12 november 2012. A specific session will be about "Technologies, communities and professions": Professional groups use the technologies enabled by the development of the internet in multiple ways. For health professions, lawyers, accountants, and teachers, as well as airline pilots, software developers, garage owners, or even prostitutes, professional virtual communities have become a potentially interesting angle of approach to understand the contemporary dynamics of professional groups. Not only do these virtual communities allow interconnections between members of professional groups and create spaces for interaction and discussion, they also re-configure the relationship between amateurs and professionals. Virtual communities can act as novel places for production and circulation of new knowledge and be used for new forms of rationalisation and commodification of services. They can act as places of independent expression for employers and customers, and can serve to create reputations that translate into mobility on professional labour markets. This session will aim to review these varied uses of professional virtual communities, by trying to evaluate their role in the current dynamics, as well as the associated methodological stakes. Abstracts of papers (200-300 words) are invited by the deadline of Friday 18 May (see call attached). Best regards, -- Pr. Marc Zune GIRSEF / IACCHOS University of Louvain, Belgium