PROFESSIONS AND THE STATE-TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF BUREAUCRATIC PROFESSIONS.

One of the conspicuous trends in the sociology of professions is an increasing stress on relating professions broadly to their social context and, more specifically, to their state connection. This has led to a growing disquiet with the traditional view of a professional continuum, i.e. from 'established' professions to non-professions. Our own originally independent researches into two occupations which have undergone processes of professionalization, namely college of education lecturers and ophthalmic opticians,[1] led us to appreciate the significance of this trend. It became apparent to us that the state could be regarded as the key variable in any contemporary analysis of professions in Britain. Thus the main objective of this paper is to examine more closely the profession-state relationship, using an elaboration and re-definition of the concept of bureaucratic profession. Our contention is that such an analysis will not simply deny several aspects of the traditional view of a professional continuum but will instead suggest a new perspective on typologies of professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]