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SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF PROFESSIONS 145

organizations which had been destroyed by Parsons, 1951). The theoretical interpretation
the French Revolution. He assessed profes- was functionalist and the emphasis was soci-
sionalism as a form of moral community etal stability through occupational relations
based on occupational membership. Such a of collegiality and cooperation. Durkheim’s
moral occupational community would hopes seemed to be fulfilled a few years after
require a more locally based and individually his death in 1917 in the tense economic con-
operated form of professional control of ditions of the 1930s. In this period in France
work which is dependent on strong processes the demand for legal protection and advan-
of occupational socialization, identity forma- tages was very strong, several professions
tion and reinforcement. In his view, these acquired legal status, such as journalists in
professional associations could provide an 1935 (Delporte, 1999), and a licence or pro-
antidote to the dangers of anomie produced fessional title, such as engineers in 1934
by capitalism and the risks posed by the (Grelon, 1986). Occupational competition
collapse of ethics in the world of work and was beginning, however, in that this social and
production. political movement which has been called the
Clearly there are difficulties with the ‘professional fact’ by some historians
Durkheimian vision and Freidson (2001) has (Ruhlmann, 2001), was involved in the unsta-
indicated some of these problems. Firstly, it is ble social space of the middle classes and in
necessary to emphasize that when Durkheim the troubles produced by the economic crisis.
used the concept of ‘profession’he was follow- Then the dramatic changes produced by
ing French usage and meant occupations World War II intervened. The corporatism
in general, and not the particular set of presti- that had been strongly promoted by the Vichy
gious and privileged occupations referred to in Regime became linked to collaboration with
English usage. Secondly, Durkheim did not fascism and Nazi power. As a consequence,
have in mind occupational associations like the after the war, corporatism – together with the
medieval guilds or contemporary professional defence of professional interests (other than
associations such as the Law Society, the workers’ interests) – became taboo and was
British Medical Association and the French not an accepted subject for many French
medical syndicates, composed of worker/prac- sociologists.
titioners only. He wanted explicitly to include The first decades after the war have been
both workers and employers (practitioners and recognized as the ‘second birth’ of French
managers) in the same ‘self-governing’ units. sociology. Partly under the influence of
Thirdly, and more importantly for his vision, American methods and theories, French soci-
Durkheim was extremely vague about what he ology became more empirical and tried to
meant by an occupation and an occupational analyze the developments in a society
group. It is also the case that there is no evi- involved in accelerated modernization. The
dence in his work of any, even potentially, social category of the ‘cadres’ (corporate
viable occupational associations. Indeed the executives), created before the war, became
only example he gave was of what he terms a more and more visible and some sociologists
pathological form of specialization. He tried to introduce notions inspired by the
claimed that in science, for example, special- sociology of the professions into their analy-
ization had created fragmentation and isolation sis of this special kind of employee.
rather than the organic solidarity Durkheim For example, the categorization of ‘cosmo-
had anticipated. politan’ versus ‘local’ (which is classic in
Despite these difficulties, the Durkheimian Anglo-American analysis of the role and
model had a big impact on early Anglo- value conflict between identification with the
American interpretations of professionalism ‘profession’ and identification with the
(such as Carr-Saunders and Wilson, 1933; ‘organization’) was adopted in some French
Marshall, 1950; Tawney, 1921; and even papers (e.g., Durand, 1972).