Professions and Autonomy

We are preparing another online workshop in the topic of professionalization!

On June 24, 2021 will be held the last online workshop of the semester organized by the Professzionalizáció-történeti Kutatócsoport (History of Professionalization Research Group) (Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities).

Program

First Part:

- Dr. Márkus KELLER (History of Professionalization Research Group - research leader; Department of Comparative Historical Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University - associate professor, Head of Department): Introduction. Opening remarks

- Dr. Hannes SIEGRIST (University of Leipzig, Institute for Cultural Sciences - Univ. Professor emeritus): Professionalization and Social Change

Second Part:

- Dr. Zsuzsanna KISS (History of Professionalization Research Group - researcher; Department of Comparative Historical Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University - assistant professor): Introduction of the Thematic Issue of Replika (Professions and Autonomy)

- Roundtable Discussion with the Authors of the Thematic Issue

The content of the thematic issue, as the link and poster to the workshop will be publish soon! Until then we are sharing the English-langauge abstracts of the papers below:

Márkus KELLER - Zsuzsanna KISS: The Autonomy of Professions

Autonomy is one of the keywords of the literature on professionalisation, and yet studies in the field of historical sociology have for the most part neglected to use it consistently.  The goal of the paper introducing the rest of the thematic block is to present the greater turning points in sociological literature concerned with the concept of autonomy, to contextualise the concept, and to use examples from the development of professions in 19th-20th century Hungarian history to demonstrate the wide variety of obstacles that emerging professions faced in their struggle for autonomy. Based on the theoretical literature and the two theoretical articles featured in the block (the writings of Randall Collins and Hannes Siegrist) we can highlight three key perspectives of analysis. First, the relationship of professionals and society (as clients, users and consumers); then, the relationship between a given profession and the state; and finally, the relationships between a profession and other occupations and professions. The historical sociological case studies featured in the block demonstrate the particularities of these perspectives as it relates to a specific profession (teachers, lawyers and pharmacists respectively.)

Keywords: profession, professionalisation, autonomy, state, market, historical sociology

 

Viktor TÁTRAI: The concept of closure in the Anglo-Saxon and in the Hungarian Sociology

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the different meanings of the concept of closure developed in Anglo-Saxon sociology as well as to present the attempts of Hungarian adaptation of the concept and to reflect on the difficulties of translation in connection with the Hungarian translation of the study ’Market closure and the conflict theory of professions’ by Randall Collins published in this journal. For this purpose, first it points out that Max Weber’s concept of Schließung has undergone significant changes during the writing of the Economy and Society and then briefly outlines the contemporary context of so-called neo-Weberian closure theory and its relationship to the original concept of Weber. This paper focuses on the enrichment of the meaning of the central concept (closure) based on the works of Frank Parkin and Raymond Murphy. It scrutinize the survival and central importance of this concept in the neo-Weberian approach of professions and professionalization. Finally, it overviews the Hungarian reception and summarizes the arguments for the new Hungarian translation in short.

Keywords: Schließung, closure theory, social closure, exclusion, market closure, social stratification, professionalisaton, neo-Weberian, Weber, Parkin, Murphy, Collins

 

Hannes SIEGRIST: Professional Autonomy in the Modern Society, Science and Culture. Introduction

The paper discusses autonomy as a factor that greatly determines the history and function of occupations and professions; and the discourse thereof in the 19th-20th century. The transition to modernity necessitated the transformation of societal and institutional conditions. These determined the directions of academic and artistic professions’ autonomous actions. Academic and artistic professions never justified the modern history of constantly conflict-laden individual and collective struggles for autonomy merely by generalised concepts of autonomy. Even though the professions in this era were united in their striving to disestablish heteronomy and claim autonomy, examining the professionalisation of various professions we find rather different forms of the process. The paper highlights these complex situations by systematically introducing different examples as well as discussing, in addition to academic professions, the unique paths of certain artistic fields towards their autonomy.

 

Randall COLLINS: Market Closure and the Conflict Theory of the Professions

This paper approaches the process of professionalization through the lens of sociological conflict theory. Collins claims that occupations do not simply respond to the market, but influence it, and those that are successful gain the status of professions. Professions are defined by the combination of market closure (monopoly) and status honour (prestige.)

Collins follows Weber’s and Schumpeter’s analyses of monopolisation and de-monopolisation trends, and applies these insights to occupational closure. This allows him to interpret labour organisation and professional hierarchies, as well as the power struggles between occupations as the factors of occupational closure. He also considers status honour an ideological cover for professions’ pragmatic self-advocacy. The paper ends with the introduction of an opposing trend, deprofessionalisation, and offers possible explanations for the waning status of professions.

Keywords: professions, professionalisation, deprofessionalisation, monopolisation, status honour, education, qualification

 

Márkus KELLER: According to their own laws? The professional autonomy of secondary school teachers in the late 19th century

In this study, I examine the development of the professional autonomy of Hungarian secondary school teachers in the second half of the 19th century. This period is especially important in the life of secondary school teachers, as the possibility of becoming a profession arises before them at the same time as the formation of Hungarian civil society. An examination of the association of secondary school teachers showed that the establishment and maintenance of autonomy was an important goal of contemporary teachers and they were prepared to with both the state and the churches that sustained the majority of secondary schools. In my paper, I argue that despite the growing control and regulation by the state and the influence of churches secondary school teachers and faculties (teaching staff) have had considerable professional autonomy.

Keywords: professionalization, secondary school, teachers, autonomy, churches, state, associations

 

Gergely MAGOS: White Lab Coats and the Chemist-on-Wheels: the Sovietisation of Hungarian Pharmacy

The sovietisation of the Hungarian economy also brought significant changes in the realm of pharmacy. The pharmaceutical industry and trade was folded into the planned economy as a matter of course, by establishing a centralized volume of production. The same process posed a greater challenge when it came to traditional labour of pharmacists, meaning the manual, magistral preparation of medicine. This necessitated the creation of a work environment that rendered the pharmacists’ work measurable, and thus subject to centralized norms. They wished to achieve this by increasing specialisation, subdividing labour processes, and creating the conditions for the industrial production of medicine. The establishment of new Soviet-type pharmacies all over the country served this purpose. The suppression of manual medicine production and the support for Taylorian labour organisation can also be interpreted as a curtailing of individual autonomous work.

Key words: sovietisation, planned economy, production norms, pharmacy

 

Viktor PAPP: Culture of Complaint and the Pursuit of Self-Determination. The possibilities and limits of the autonomy of Hungarian lawyers under the Dual Monarchy

The modern process of professionalisation in Central and East-Central European societies is often primarily explained by top-down reforms engineered by state actors and governments. In Hungary under the Dual Monarchy, the modernisation and reorganisation of judges’ and lawyers’ associations was enacted in accordance with the spirit of separating the justice system from the civil service. While lawyers won wide-ranging autonomy and a chamber system in 1870, they were dissatisfied with the jurisdiction granted to them, so they relied on the professional press of the era to constantly keep the urgency of reform and the redrafting of regulations on the agenda. Many lawyers were offended by the functioning of the remedial courts, or even that of the lawyers’ disciplinary courts, as well as the – purportedly – different perspective of judges, and the paragraphs of the new criminal code pertaining to lawyers. But the culture of complaint developing on the pages of the legal professional press did not serve to disseminate information or ethical norms, as much as to add to the arguments for autonomy. The examination of the functioning of autonomy and the pragmatic utilization of the ethical codex leads one to infer that lawyers actively used the jurisdiction granted to them, and successfully developed mechanisms that allowed goals that were only indirectly included in the paragraphs to be validated. However, the compatibility of the legal profession with other occupations, the carrying out of disciplinary processes, and thus the development and maintenance of the prestige of the lawyer’s profession was limited, limited in ways that the influence of the bar association could not overcome in the era.

Keywords: corporate autonomy, professionalisation, lawyers, autonomy, bar association, disciplinary processes