Earlier in 2015, during the time we were putting together this Companion, I was watching on TV the French TV drama series that was broadcast in the UK as The Spiral. The original French title is Engrenages, which I understand has the figurative meaning of being ‘caught up in the system’ (Larousse-Bordas, 1997). This is in itself a good way of introducing the professions and professionalism, for the professions and professionalism have intriguing, various and changing relations with ‘the system’, by which I mean the economy, society and state. But to return to the TV series, it is the French legal profession as well as the police who play a significant role in the drama. Whatever licence has been taken in the service of dramatic storytelling, it is clear that the French legal system – and the profession that works within it – operates differently from that in the UK and North America. These latter countries’ legal systems have been shaped by common-law principles, whereas in France – and much of continental Europe – the system of law is based on the Napoleonic code (Krause, 1996, p. 139). Yet, even while the two legal systems are very different, we can still recognise that the work of advocates and magistrates in France corresponds, however loosely, to that of barristers and judges in Britain and similarly to the attorneys and judges in the USA. By extension, we recognise other professions as they exist within different countries across the globe even though their organisation may be somewhat different. In this current section, the chapters are focused primarily on Europe, the UK and the USA; the issues of professional organisation and practice elsewhere are treated in greater depth within Part IV (Global Professionalism and the Emerging Economies).
In this first group of chapters, our contributors set out key concepts and theories for the understanding and analysis of professions and professionalism. These are specifically discussed in the first chapter, which reviews the sociological and organisational theories underpinning research and provides an assessment of recent developments (Ackroyd). Similarly, too, the closing chapter deals with professions and power (Saks), including issues of policy. Between these two broadly foundational chapters there are three chapters that set out, in some detail, key themes that are crucially shaping the professions and professionalism today: governance, including how this relates to globalisation (Kuhlmann et al.), service users as citizens and consumers (Tonkens), and gender and diversity (see Hearn et al.). Together, these provide the bedrock for the following thematic sections and case studies.
References
Krause, E. A. (1996) Death of the Guilds: Professions, States and the Advance of Capitalism, 1930 to the Present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Larousse-Bordas (1997) BBC French Dictionary. London: BBC Books.