The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor: 1st (First) Edition

by Andrew Abbott

In The System of Professions Andrew Abbott explores central questions about the role of professions in modern Why should there be occupational groups controlling expert knowledge? Where and why did groups such as law and medicine achieve their power? Will professionalism spread throughout the occupational world? While most inquiries in this field study one profession at a time, Abbott here considers the system of professions as a whole. Through comparative and historical study of the professions in nineteenth- and twentieth-century England, France, and America, Abbott builds a general theory of how and why professionals evolve.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, History, Labor, Theory, Counselling

Paperback

First published August 15, 1988

Reviews

[Matthew Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m an engineer professionally and was recommended this book after recounting my struggles to understand professional work and the division of knowledge in an engineering company. The book argues for a loose definition of professions as “Somewhat exclusive groups of individuals applying somewhat abstract knowledge to particular cases.” The thesis is that professions are best understood through conflict of domains of work. Further, it argues that much of what a profession does in terms of developing credentials, creating abstract theories, and complex training processes, is done in service of securing it’s legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

The main areas of study are information services (librarians and the like), medicine, and personal problems (what is now called mental health). Neither my chosen field of engineering nor my personal interest of the military receive significant analysis. That said, the theory developed seems like it would apply well. Perhaps I can find such analysis elsewhere in the literature now that I have this starting point?

Ultimately, this book joins the my cannon of crucial books for understanding the world. Professions are dominant in the US and the explanation here is some of the most lucid description of “how the world actually works” I’ve ever read. Fair warning though, despite my interest and strong academic background, I struggled to read the book. I’ve only just finished it after having it from the library for nearly 6 months. The writing is esoteric, though it does have plenty of dry wit.

[Jan D · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was VERY interesting to read, yet, at the same time, also pretty dry. I have read several other books while reading this one to make up for this.
So, what is it about? A non-essentialist view on how professions develop. This means that it does not ask “what is a profession?” but rather: “How did particular professions change in the past?”, with a focus on their interactions with other professions (thus the *System* in the title). The book has nice explainations for a lot of things that one might wonder about: Why is university training so different than how people work in the profession? Why are universities important for professions? Why do some professions have a clear grasp on field they have no real solutions for? What are alternatives to professions?
Its rather Foucaudian, i.e. there are power struggles everywhere and they are intertwine with state, law and knowledge (The process/event ideas and its non-essentialism are Whitehead and Dewey-ish, though). With its focus on history, what is missing is the detailed study of how professional claims are made at the workplace on a small scale, but thats something I point out because of my personal interestes rather than as a lack of the book itself.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterpiece of social science. I found something thought provoking on almost every page. I am commencing a reread immediately. I expect I will get a whole additional set of insights the second time around, now that I am more familiar with the language and concepts Abbott uses.
I aspire to write a longer review - however, at this point I will elaborate on one point. Abbott's writing provokes reflections and insights well beyond what one generally finds in social science works.
Abbott's writing allows a reader to learn about the topic (the professions, their evolution) as well as how to think about the topic.
As a life long 'expert laborer' - I found that Abbott's writing prompted me to reframe and rethink my understanding of my own professional domain and experience in addition to insights it offered about the 'expert labor' domain I have studied from the outside (e.g. medicine).
Reading Abbott's book was an extraordinary experience.

[Bo Manson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author explores the role of professions in today's world and he choses some occupations for comparison such as medical, legal and accounting in countries particularly the US, the UK, France and several other places ranging from 19th century to 20th century. The author continues explaining that professions will have challenges; jurisdiction boundaries will be disputed, competitors and many others and how all these factors shaped them over time. As a layman who stumble upon the book, I must say it's quite a hard work to read and digest because it was written in an academic style but I do get the gist of it and somewhat able to relate with my worklife.

[A Ter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of academic-ese, but beneath all of that, a handful of interesting ideas/histories.

[Kåre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kapitel 10. The construction of the personal problems jusidiction.

Fin introduktion, hvor emnet siges at være umugligt at afgrænse

282. 1850-75.
Mest oplagt tilhørte området religion, idet mennesker, der havde det dårligt personligt, kunne presses til at tænke over religion, frelse.
Sidst i perioden: industrialisering.
Fattige mister fællesskab, kultur, kirke og oplever problemer.
Rige (mænd) mister tilknytning til fællesskab, og oplever eksistentielle problemer, som anerkendes.
Industrialiseringen medfører kontrol og monitorering af sygdom, afvigelse. Betegnelsen "nerver" bruges for problemet.
288. Neurologist var en videnskab, der ikke producerede resultater. Derfor var holisme og fortolkninger hovedmetode. Diagnoser blev skyet.
290. Case litterature revals clarly that general nevousness recorded the impacyt of the great social changes earlier discussed. Dozens of reports attribute medical symptoms directly to social causwes..
Neurologerne var en lille gruppe, med en stor gruppe patienter.
Fra 1900 til 1920 kommer psychiaterne til. Disse kommer fra sindsygehospitaler. Kuren er moralsk.
306. rise og psykoterapi. The Freudian system avoided the problems of alternative jurisdictional models. To treat somatized personal problems as a merely residual category - as did Mills and Spiller - was to throw away the jurisdition willfully. to treat each case as a unique ensamble of causes -as did Meyer - was to make all professional work inferential, which in turn made it impossible to legitimate professinal work, since the lay public could not see how the system worked in a simple case. to contine to treat the problem as important and diagnosable but beyond medical understand - as did the concservative eclectics - was ti implicitly surrender the jusidictio to quacks. Thus, irrespective of its veracity, the Freudian approach offerede neraly the only effective solution to the continous interprofessonal competition
307. Sameksistens mellem neurologer og psykiatere.
Freud mente, at man ikke bhøvede af være læge, men det gjorde faget svagt for indtrængen. Psykiatere fik kontrol over psykologer, som ofte var kvinder. Et middel her var den interne supervision, som blev zstadfæstet. Hermed havde psykiatere internt kontrol over området.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good classic about defining the concept of a profession, but kind of a snoozefest for me. If you're stuck reading this and keep drifting in and out of sleep like I did, try checking out this blog post that has a really great discussion of the book http://understandingsociety.blogspot....

But don't let that stop you from reading it if you love this kind of stuff!

[TJ]

Phil 473 Social Healthcare Ethics