Challenged Professional and Class Identities

The major transformations undergone by the post-communist societies in Central and Eastern Europe have brought to the fore the repositioning of the middle classes, primarily through reforms aimed at the (re)professionalisation of work in various fields. Little has been written, however, on the links between social class and profession, and on the complex relationships between the symbolic struggles for recognition (Bourdieu) and the values professionals cherish in their practices (MacIntyre, Sayer). This study proposes a conceptual framework for the analysis of professional identities as class identities, which draws on three bodies of literature: class theory, the sociology of professions, and moral economy. It carries out exploratory research on documentary data from policy texts, media articles and forums, and academic literature, in order to examine the situation of Romanian teachers, increasingly faced with economic hardships and diminished prestige and job satisfaction. The book addresses students in sociology or anyone else who may be interested in doing research on the project of professionalism in contemporary contexts.