Influence of the Structure of the Organizational Field of Small Animal Veterinary Medicine on the Processes of Professionalization of Veterinarians

Abstract

This text was conceived as an attempt to describe the organizational field of veterinary medicine of companion animals in Russia and its impact on the processes of formation of the profession of veterinarians of companion animals as a separate professional group. Having emerged in the early 1990s in Russia as a separate branch of veterinary medicine, veterinary medicine of companion aimals has gone from intuitive practices of treating dogs and cats to a complex organizational field with many actors. Despite such rapid development, this area, unlike agricultural veterinary medicine, still considerably lacks strong institutional regulation. The profession of a veterinarian of companion animals does not live in the conventional continental model of professionalization for our region but it is market-oriented and develops through the veterinarians' own efforts while they do not exist outside veterinary clinics - their own organizational field. The article offers a description of this organizational field and analyzes the influence of its structure on the processes of professionalization of veterinarians of companion animals.