ABSTRACT
The development of ideas, the introduction of new evidence, the integration of the whole work on more rigorous principles yielding more coherence and consistency, is always a possibility. The chapter addresses the starting problem — how to relate the study of professionalism to class theory — and places it within a wider context of a general thesis about collective social mobility. It contains also the fruits of the researches into the history of the English medical profession. John Rex has been a leading exponent of the view that sociology must combine'a theoretical with a historically-grounded approach. It is a requirement for the sociologist, Rex affirms, for him to be steeped in the social reality which he is studying, particularly history, in order to avoid sterile theorisation as an end in itself. The inspiration of the work of David Lockwood, unbeknown to him, has been an example for many years, and likewise also, the writing of Anthony Giddens.
