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Cited by 224Management and Organizational StudiesEducation, sociology, and vocational trainingLegal and Social Philosophy

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 6 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Recent History of Professionalism in Relation to Social Structure and Social Policy

Marshall, T. H.·1939·Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science
DOI 10.2307/137036
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Abstract

The professions, conceived as a select body of superior occupations, have existed from time immemorial, although their identity has often been in dispute. The ancients wrote and argued about them, while Herbert Spencer traced their origin among primitive peoples. The earliest view to which we need here pay attention was that occupations should be judged and valued according to their compatibility with the good life. They were to be tested by their effect on the giver of the service rather than on the recipient. The professions were, in English parlance, the occupations suitable for a gentleman. This idea naturally flourished in societies which distinguished sharply between life lived as an end in itself, and life passed in pursuit of the means which enable others to live as free civilized men should. The professions in such a society were those means to living which were most innocuous, in that they did not dull the brain, like manual labour, nor corrupt the soul, like commerce. They even contained within themselves qualities and virtues which might well find a place among the ends of the good life itself. Leisure, based on the ownership of land or of slaves, was the chief mark of aristocracy, and here too the professions were but slightly inferior. For leisure does not mean idleness. It means the freedom to choose your activities according to your own preferences and your own standards of what is best. The professions, it was said, enjoyed this kind of freedom, not so much because they were free from the control of an employer—that was assumed—but rather because, for them, choice was not restricted and confined by economic pressure. The professional man, it has been said, does not work in order to be paid: he is paid in order that he may work. Every decision he takes in the course of his career is based on his sense of what is right, not on his estimate of what is profitable. That, at least, is the impression he would like to create when defending his claim to superior status.

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Crossref · 10.2307/137036

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6 of 6 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Research works printed but not linked: 10

  1. 1938, British Medical Journal, 367
  2. 1904, The Theory of Business Enterprise, 51
  3. 1938, British Medical Journal, 368
  4. Robson, 1937, The British Civil Servant, 19
  5. 1935, Harper's Monthly Magazine, 656
  6. Carr-Saunders, 1933, The Professions, 71
  7. 1921, The Engineers and the Price System, 75
  8. 1896, The Principles of Sociology, III
  9. 1938, Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health for 1937, 1
  10. Cattell, 1937, Human Affairs, 125

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Metadata

Authors
Marshall, T. H.
Affiliations
London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
Corresponding author
Marshall, T. H.
Venue
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1939-08
Volume
5
Issue
3
Pages
325-340
ISSN
  • 0315-4890 (ISSN-L)
  • 1920-7220
DOI
10.2307/137036
OpenAlex
W2799776565
Cited by
224
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
FWCI
0.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 27492 d)
Locations
The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Education, sociology, and vocational training
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Legal and Social Philosophy
Keywords
professionalism, professions, social structure, social policy, history of the profession, leisure, nobility, professional status, Herbert Spencer, good life

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