ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the single theme of professionalism and social class. It explores the development of a body of writing about the professions sub-divided by several rather different approaches. The chapter suggests that the reasons for professions and class theory are bound up with the inadequacy of the approach through the individualistic perspective of the traditional studies of social mobility. It shows that an alternative way of exploring the problem is via the concept of collective social mobility. It examines the contribution of P. Halmos on the ideology of the personal service professions 'whose principal function is to bring about changes in the body or personality of the client'. The chapter suggests that J. Johnson's definition of occupational sociology, especially of professionalism, in terms of the producer-consumer relationship is too much influenced by a conception arising in economic theory, and for the reason is too limiting to be an adequate sociological model.
