The German Experience of Professionalization

Abstract

Modern learned professions (medicine, law, teaching, engineering, and others) developed in central Europe just as vigorously as in England or America. Yet their close relationship with state power - more typical of the world development of professions than the Anglo-American model - led to a different historical experience of professionalization. This work is the first to explore that experience in a comprehensive way from the time when modern learned professions arose until the eve of World War II. Based on the history and surviving records of German professional organizations, it shows how the learned professions emerged gradually in the nineteenth century from the shadow of strong state regulation to achieve a high degree of autonomy and control over professional standards by the First World War. By studying professional groups collectively, it gives a more contoured picture of their fate under National Socialism than works dedicated primarily to the phenomenon of fascism itself.

Professionalisation in Early Childhood Education in Russia

“…Professionalisation has been portrayed in different ways: from a process in which professions achieve a legally underwritten monopoly and relative autonomy from the state, to a social mobility project in which occupations strive towards cognitive and social advantage by being resistant to competition and alternative forms of accountability (Collins, 1990;Freidson, 2001;Grossman, 2004). The professionalisation strategies deployed to achieve higher social standing have been different in the AngloSaxon context and in other European countries, ranging from successful manipulation of the market by the occupational group ("professionalisation from within") to domination of forces external to the group ("professionalisation from above") (McClelland 1990;1991;Johnson, 1995).…”

Convergence or divergence? A multidimensional approach to healthcare reforms

“…At the opposite extreme, we can find the case of Continental European countries (in particular France and Germany), where the top-down professionalization process was mostly guided by the state, while the professional associations were weak and unable to control the healthcare market by themselves (Cocks and Jarausch, 1990;Siegrist, 1990;McClelland, 1991;Herzlich et al, 1993;Hassenteufel, 1997). The important meaning of this second type of professionalization process lays in the fact that it shows us that the relationship between the state and the profession can no longer be considered 'as a zero sum game, in which "more state" means "less professionalism" and vice versa' (Tousijn, 2000, p. 27), according to a typical classic Anglo-American perspective.…”

The Professions Between State And Market: A Cross-national Study Of Convergence And Divergence

“…In both societies, professions and the state have developed in a highly interdependent manner ( Johnson 1972( Johnson , 1982. The historical development is already well covered in the literature ( Johnson 1982;Abbott 1988;Jarausch 1990;Kocka 1990;Siegrist 1990;McClelland 1991;Sugarman 1995;Burrage 1996) and will be referred to only brie y to illuminate enduring legacies. In Britain the classical professions of law and medicine claimed their autonomy from the state in the early seventeenth century, and thereby de ned and circumscribed the role of the liberal state (Sugarman 1995;Burrage 1996).…”

“…In the case of British pharmacists, dissatisfaction with services has been voiced strongly by consumer bodies (National Consumers' Council 1985, 1991. In addition, purchasers of over-the-counter drugs are said to behave as con dent consumers rather than as advice-seeking deferential patients (Hassell et al 1996;School of Pharmacy 1998).…”

“…Larson 1977;Freidson 1994), the evolution of Anglo-American professional occupations has been so distinctive that the term cannot be applied to equivalent occupations in other advanced societies. But most social scientists and social historians see such an approach as far too restrictive ( Johnson 1982( Johnson , 1993Abbott 1988;Burrage and Torstendahl 1990;Siegrist 1990;McClelland 1991;Light 1995). They point out that contrasts between societies in the manner of regulation, although signi cant, are better viewed as dynamically evolving differences of degree, rather than as absolute and static divergencies of kind.…”