Wildschut Angelique, Mbatha Nomkhosi A, Meyer Tamlynne
Equitable Education and Economies, Human Sciences Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
Sociology Department, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Front Sociol. 2025 Apr 24;10:1515427. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1515427. eCollection 2025.
The nature of work has experienced steady shifts that have accelerated over the last three decades, raising important sociological questions; for instance, what does this mean for individuals and groups, and their relation to society, markets and the political systems that contextualize attempts and opportunities for different forms of livelihood? The concept of profession has been a key construct for sociological analysis to understand, study and theorise the implications of such shifts in different countries, workplaces and even particular occupational groups. Studies of professions have thus contributed to knowledge in many ways, not only by highlighting the implications for individuals and groups within work contexts but also illustrating importantly how this relates or not to wider societal phenomena. However, there are strong contentions that because its function as a mechanism of social structure formation has weakened significantly over time, as a sociological category and construct, the concept of profession is no longer relevant in contemporary times. This paper shares preliminary results from a systematic review of literature on the application and conceptualisation of the term profession between 2022 and 2023 to start engaging with the question of whether it has exhausted its sociological relevance. The findings suggest firstly that while there has been an overall decline in the utilization of profession-related terms, a slight increase in the utilization of profession is apparent. Secondly, in the reviewed papers, limited engagement with the conceptual underpinning of the construct exists. Finally, while critical engagement with the concept is not always apparent, most papers recognize a clear link between social phenomena and the role of the profession/s toward maintaining or dismantling such challenges in society.
工作的性质经历了持续的转变，在过去三十年中加速发展，引发了重要的社会学问题；例如，这对个人和群体意味着什么，以及他们与社会、市场和政治制度的关系，而这些制度将不同形式生计的尝试和机会置于特定背景之中？职业概念一直是社会学分析的关键构建，用于理解、研究和理论化不同国家、工作场所甚至特定职业群体中此类转变的影响。因此，对职业的研究在许多方面都为知识做出了贡献，不仅突出了工作背景中对个人和群体的影响，还重要地说明了这与更广泛的社会现象之间的关系。然而，存在强烈的争议观点认为，随着时间的推移，职业作为社会结构形成机制的功能已大幅削弱，作为一个社会学类别和构建，职业概念在当代已不再相关。本文分享了对2022年至2023年间关于职业一词应用和概念化的文献进行系统综述的初步结果，以开始探讨它是否已耗尽其社会学相关性的问题。研究结果首先表明，虽然与职业相关术语的总体使用有所下降，但职业的使用略有增加。其次，在所审查的论文中，对该构建的概念基础的探讨有限。最后，虽然对该概念的批判性探讨并不总是明显，但大多数论文都认识到社会现象与职业在维护或消除社会中的此类挑战方面的作用之间存在明确联系。
