Liquid professionalism
by John Craig
There has been further coverage in recent days for Richard Sennett's new book about the culture of capitalism. As Will Hutton says, he argues that a culture in which status accumulates with experience is being replaced with one in which adaptablility is seem as the primary professional virtue. This is all very reminiscent of Zygmunt Bauman's work on the 'liquids' triumph over the 'solids', with all writers making much of the psychological as well as the social consequences. Far be it from me to put us in this company, but this is vital theoretical background to the questions we will tackle in our work on teaching and in The Producers, a collection of essays we are putting together on futures for professionalism.