Summary
Contents
Subject index
This book tells the story of the principal European intellectual professions from the demise of the ancient régime to the rise of the European Union. A historical study which applies sociological concepts it creates a European-scale picture of the professions spanning over two centuries of change. Uniting the legal, medical, engineering and accounting professions it provides a comparative historical and sociological exploration of 'Professional Europe'. The book: • comprehensively investigates the roots and origins of the four professions• reconstructs the processes and changes which have characterised them • charts their response to external agents such as the state, diverse social movements, economic crises and wars. Inspired by Bourdieu it rejects theories of professionalization drawing instead upon the sociology of crisis and theories on the decline of the professions to introduce the intellectual professions' relationship with the fascist and authoritarian regimes. Detailed, well defined and critical in its application Professional Men, Professional Women also examines the role of women within the professions and includes a devoted chapter conducting a twofold comparison between countries and professions.
Chapter 3: Engineers
The states of the Ancien Régime had consolidated traditions of intervention in technical education. The continental monarchies monopolized the metallurgical and mining industries, and it was in these sectors, together with the army, that the first schools were created to train soldiers and technicians. In the model which arose in continental Europe during the eighteenth century, the purpose of technical training was to provide preparation for employment in the civil service. It concerned two distinct professions: that of the military technician, an expert in engineering and artillery, and that of the state engineer, who worked on the construction of infrastructures.
At the end of the eighteenth century, France was the only European country with a complete training system for ...
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