CONCEPT
The Three Arenas of Jurisdictional Competition
Abbott's framework identifying three distinct theaters — workplace, legal, and public — in which professional jurisdictions are contested, each operating by different logics and producing different outcomes.
Jurisdictional competition occurs simultaneously in three arenas with different logics. The workplace arena is where work is performed and organizational demand arbitrates competition. The legal arena is where licensing, regulation, and formal institutional authority are established by the state. The public arena is where professional authority is contested in media, public opinion, and cultural discourse. A profession can win in one arena and lose in another, and the overall jurisdictional outcome depends on the interaction of arena-specific dynamics. Most analyses of AI focus exclusively on the workplace arena, missing the consequential competition unfolding in the other two.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The legal arena is where the state constitutes jurisdictions through licensing requirements, scope-of-practice laws, and regulatory frameworks. When the state requires a medical license to practice medicine, it is not merely certifying competence—it is creating a jurisdictional boundary enforced by law. The AI disruption is challenging these state-created jurisdictions in ways most regulatory frameworks were