During the second half of the nineteenth century, the occupation of shipmaster was transformed. It was remade as a profession ofandfor the middle class. This development followed from the specialization and division of labour in the shipping industry, and reflected the social divisions of an increasingly class-stratified society. The thesis advanced in this paper assigns a key role in this process to the dynamic of industrial capitalism. The paper argues that class-specific recruitment to the shipmaster's occupation put the values of the professional middle classes to the service of shipowners in the extension of their control over labour. The study examines several facets of this transformation: the state's contribution in the abandonment of mercantilist regulation of maritime labour and the introduction of masters' and mates' certificates of competency in the midnineteenth century; the role of the technological change from sail to steam on the nature and organization of the workforce; the owners' efforts to reduce the shipmaster to a wage employee whose self-interests and self-image made him distinctfrom other workers; and the structural changes in both the shipping industry and the systems of recruitment and training which ensured that the profession of shipmaster would gradually emerge as a middle-class preserve.The remaking of the profession of shipmaster illuminates the larger processes of social differentiation and cultural/ideological production associated with the division and specialization of labour in Victorian Britain. Examining this case in detail advances our understanding of class division in industrial society, particularly as it relates to the important, but singularly neglected, middle-managment professions.À la suite de certaines transformations, le métier de constructeur de navires put redevenir une occupation de la classe moyenne, durant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. Ce changement résultait de la spécialisation et de la division du travail dans l'industrie maritime et reflétait les tensions internes d'une société de plus en plus répartie en classes sociales. C'est la transformation du capitalisme industriel qui aurait apporté un tel changement, selon l'hypothèse de travail de cette recherche. D'après son auteur, le recrutement des constructeurs de navire en fonction des origines sociales a contribué à mettre les valeurs des classes moyennes professionnelles au service des armateurs qui ont accru ainsi leur contrôle sur la main-d'oeuvre.L'étude examine différents aspects de cette transformation : le rôle de l’État dans le déclin de la réglementation mercantiliste du travail maritime et l’introduction, au milieu du XIXe siècle, de certificats professionnels pour tes maîtres et les apprentis ; les répercussions des changements technologiques sur la nature et l’organisation de la main-d'oeuvre, suite au passage de la voile à la vapeur ; les efforts des armateurs pour réduire les constructeurs de navire au rang de salariés dont les intérêts et l'image de soi les rendaient différents des autre...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.