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An Unprecedented Contribution

Jordi Ludevid’s book is an unprecedented and original contribution to the study of professionalism as the constitutive virtue of a new citizenship, demanding and committed to the needs of our time. In the analysis of professional excellence, the usual approach is to focus on aspects related to expert or technical knowledge, not on the exercise of an activity that takes place in democratic contexts, and which answers to the common good. Beyond developing the specialised knowledge that attests to their competence in their field of work, good professionals contribute to generating an ethos, a way of being and doing, which lends a special character to the space in which they carry out their activity. That space is the city, the place where people with diverse interests live together under a shared commitment, by virtue of which, in addition to acquiring an identity as lawyers, journalists, architects or doctors, they assume their responsibilities regarding what we have come to call civic duties.

As an architect and a connoisseur of professional associations, the author of A City of Professions offers a reflection on the mission of professionals as the backbone of contemporary cities. Now more than ever, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, we need texts like this one that force us to rethink the various missions of professional life as a whole, from a perspective that aims to show the values of interdisciplinarity and the ethical dimension inherent in human beings, whatever their profession and the work they do.

Victoria Camps

Philosopher