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The Challenges

Maps

The first challenge is precisely the complex nature of the professional fact, its variable geometry and its variable intensity, behind the three key words in question. Indeed, we must take into account the commonalities, but also the differences, between professionalism, professionals and professions, three words that define the professional fact as a whole, even if they evoke different worlds and have a bearing on different groups. And yet, in order to have a complete and sensible, useful and wide-ranging, meaningful vision of the professional fact, it is advisable to refer to all three, because as they are essential, they stand as complementary, interdependent and united.

Simplifying notably and following Victoria Camps and Donald Schön, professionalism would be «a democratic virtue available to all, but also an art»; a professional would be «an expert with values (virtues), committed to practical knowledge and to people and who does not act alone»; and, finally, a profession, «the set of professionals at the service of the same internal good or public mission, who share an institution and end up also sharing a common character (ethos)». The three words are certainly related and interdependent, but their actual sociological scope, their objective and subjective audience, is different. Who are we addressing, then? What and who are we really talking about?

To help us we can turn to maps. Although, as Paul Valéry argued, «the simple is false and the complex unusable», thinking by mapping has been established as beneficial in an intermediate space. Maps provide an interpretation of reality which, without exhausting it, also describes it. Often, a new and surprising vision appears before our eyes. Thus, reflecting on the professional fact would be based, first of all, on the maps corresponding to these three key words: professionalism, professionals, professions.

The map of professionalism would reflect the enormous potential importance of the professional fact, far beyond academia, with a greater quantitative scope and a greater sphere of influence than the number of members of professional associations – and even non-members, who are, evidently, much larger in number than the professions. Professionalism, a job well done, encompasses much more than just professionals and professions.

A second map would correspond to the recognition and location of professionals, which includes, as we stated before, more than two million members of professional associations in Spain alone – around 4.3% of the national population. If we extrapolate this percentage to the world population, we would be talking about some 350 million professionals in the world, all of them linked institutionally in a complex system, which is very much in need of improvement, but which is real and global. Furthermore, and although not all university graduates become professionals, university enrolment in the world increased by 53% during the period 2000-2009 according to UNESCO, with 262 million students expected by 2025. With the number of university students in the world standing at 153 million in 2009, we can deduce that the socialisation and massification of professionals is an evident and growing, proven fact. To give an example, there are around 3.5 million architects in the world, and around 70,000 in Spain.

Moreover, according to some sociologists this 4.3% of the total population represents around 25% of the active population, a spectacular figure. This percentage is even higher in cities and much higher in large cities or global cities. In fact, in large global cities all over the world, professionals already make up a majority of the working population and also of voters. We are not talking, therefore, about a minority, but rather, as Talcott Parsons states, «the most important component of modern societies». It is not brash but reasonable to affirm that cities are mainly and hegemonically made up of professionals, thus embodying true cities of professions.

Finally, there would be a third map, which would be a list of all the existing professions in the world. Depending on the criteria and the strictness of their recognition, which is not standardised, this list would be difficult and variable, debatable and complex: some 530 professions in Europe; some 320 in Spain; but only 40 professions that are certified, licensed and regulated in our country and in the European Union.5 This third map would reflect the enormous diversity and internal institutional complexity that characterises the world of professions and trades. If we also take into account the fact that the engineering professions in Spain have specialised by subdividing, and that there are now 18, nine short-cycle and nine long-cycle, then we are talking about something much more specific and limited. There are 40 regulated professions, and if we considered engineering as a single profession, there would be 23. A chart produced by the technical services of Unión Profesional in 2017 further clarifies the reality of regulated professions in Spain. According to this study, there are 300 or more certified professions in Spain: 125 professions regulated under Annex 8 of Royal Decree 2006; 80 licensed professions; 44 with the dual status of regulated and standardised; 50 chartered professions with a recognised professional charter; and, finally, 33 professions associated with Unión Profesional.

Legal Cultures

A second difficulty and a second challenge stems from the fact that there are different legal cultures in the world, which greatly affects the treatment of the subject that concerns us.6 And although a subsequent in-depth analysis relativises these differences, the starting points, the common clichés, the initial «assumptions», are different and constitute a certain impediment, a difficulty. At least in Europe, we might say that there are two main cultural and popular models in this respect: one running from public law to private law (Southern, Latin countries, influenced by the Napoleonic codes and Roman law) and the other running in the opposite direction, from private law to public law (Northern countries, Anglo-Saxon culture). In both cases, professional institutions assert themselves and always see themselves as conspicuous members of civil society, but the fact is that they all have, or aspire to have, a public mandate and a special relationship with the State.

«Without the ‘What’ There is no ‘How’»

Finally, within the professions, a third difficulty is the dichotomy between the «what» and the «how» of the professional fact. In the world of professional institutions, reflections are generally focused on the «how» (legal and economic realities, legal and institutional problems), but very little on the «what» (the components of professionalism, professional autonomy, a job well done, its artistic foundation,7 craftsmanship, personal self-determination). A «what» that, due to its importance (without the «what» there is no «how»), must be clearly recognised and claimed, updated and promoted, in the wake of the «triumph of the markets», to quote Howard Gardner’s well-known expression, in the wake of the digital revolution and, above all, in the wake of individualisation,8 job insecurity and bureaucratisation. Our response to the clash between two worlds – that of the new economy and cybernetics on the one hand, and that of the aretè9 and craftsmanship10 on the other – seems to be individual, silent or aggressive depending on the circumstances; we are often indignant, nearly always dejected and pensive.

The Debate

There are currently too many unanswered questions in our workplaces and in our professional institutions. And it is a fact that most university students or graduates, if they were asked, would not have an answer either. There has been an obvious «eclipse», an «overshadowing» of the professional fact. It is true that the terms professionalism, profession and professional are used profusely, but in general with a lack of knowledge of their meaning and history, their legal regime and the profound reality of their rights and obligations. And, above all, it is a failure to recognise their powerful capacity to articulate and structure society, cities and the network society.

Given the present circumstances, therefore, it is significant that there is no lively debate and no flow of this information in universities,11 schools, faculties and professional bodies. With notable exceptions, the academic world lives in its own bubble and so does the world of professional associations. There has been no systematic, productive and clearheaded dialogue between them in order to educate and train not «experts, theoreticians, academics» but professionals, i.e., citizens specialised in a practical, people-oriented knowledge.

During this possible debate, we will need to pay close attention to some fundamental aspects of the context, regarding which there is still little awareness and limited reflection, and which have a decisive influence on the present and future of professional activity: namely, cities and the network society. Exploring the profound and strategic relationship, if any, between the professional fact and cities and the network society would undoubtedly offer a more precise and up-to-date picture of the professional fact and of the professions, which would of course also be absolutely fundamental in the effort toward recovering the words.

Finally, it is remarkable, and at the same time little known, unrecognised, that some very important and significant voices from the academic and cultural world have clearly positioned themselves in favour of the professional fact. Surely the time has come to take a step forward and publicly align with them, facilitating and proposing the foundations for a debate that is entirely necessary for regeneration.

5 Not all specialised social collectives have organised themselves into professions. Some have organised themselves into guilds, trade unions or other forms of organisation.

6 This is a significant difficulty. See, for example, Jordi Ludevid, «Madrid-Barcelona», La Vanguardia, 14 July 2018. https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcelona/20180714/45879395252/madrid-barcelona.html

7 In the sense of creating and responding to new and uncertain situations.

8 The concept of individualisation, introduced and discussed in sociology by Castells, Bauman, Beck and others, is key to describing the current moment, the network society and the new citizenship.

9 Greek for ‘excellence’, ‘virtue’.

10 The contributions of the American philosopher and educator Donald Schön regarding the training of professionals are fundamental. See La formación de profesionales reflexivos, Barcelona: Paidós, 1992.

11 «Research has distanced itself from professional practice. The crisis of confidence in the professions and their training institutions is rooted in the prevailing epistemology of practice» (Schön, Ibid.).