Professional Autonomy and the Role of the Layman

Employing the concepts of "license" and "mandate," this paper explores the implications of lay encroachment upon the presumed autonomy of a professional. A definition of a profession is suggested in terms of the degree to which an aspirant profession tolerates interference on the part of those whom it serves. S INCE Max Weber considered Beruf1 some fifty years ago, sociologists have concerned i_J themselves with the structure and dynamics of the occupational panorama. In their investigations, they have tended to focus on those occupations in which the relation of occupational role to the larger society, and particularly to the clientele served by the occupation, is well structured.2 Professional specialties appeared to be particularly congenial to study because of the clarity of the boundary between professional and client.3 It is possible, however, that there are occupations in which such clarity is obscured, professions in which client questions and, indeed, challenges the structure. This paper considers such a profession, that of the rabbi, the religious specialist of the Jew.4 Implications of this study for our over-all knowledge of professions are outlined. The princi* Revision of a paper read before the Society for the Study of Social Problems, New York City, August, 1960. The writer is indebted to Louis H. Orzack, Boston University, for his advice and counsel in the preparation of this paper, but the responsibility for the results rests entirely with the author. Additional information on the study of which this paper is a part may be found in Lee Braude, "The Rabbi: Some Notes on Identity Clash," Jewish Social Studies, 22 (January 1960), pp. 43-52. l See H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), pp. 77-156, 196-204; Talcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1937), p. 506; Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1960). 2 For example, E. Jackson Baur, "The Functions of Ceremony in the Advertising Business," Social Forces, 27 (May 1949), pp. 358-65; Louis Kriesberg, "The Retail Furrier: Concepts of Security and Success," American Journal of Sociology, 57 (March 1952), pp. 478-85; Donald Roy, "Quota Restriction and Goldbricking in a Machine Shop," American Journal of Sociology, 57 (March 1952), pp. 427-42. See also: E. C. Hughes, "Institutional Office and the Person," American Journal of Sociology, 43 (November 1937), pp. 404-13; "Mistakes at Work," Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 17 (August 1951), pp. 320-27; "The Sociological Study of Work," American Journal of Sociology, 57 (March 1952), pp. 423-26. 3For example, H. S. Becker, "The Professional Dance Musician in Chicago," American Journal of Sociology, 57 (September 1951), pp. 136-44; Oswald Hall, The Informal Organization of Medical Practice in an Eastern City (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1944); Dan C. Lortie, The Anaesthesiologist (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1949); "Laymen to Lawmen: Law School, Careers, and Professional Socialization," Harvard Educational Review, 29 (Fall 1959), pp. 35269. 4 For a discussion of the "religious specialist," see Joachim Wach, The Sociology of Religion (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1947), p. 339 ff. For a general discussion of the rabbi, cf. Bernard J. Bamberger, "The American Rabbi: His Changing Role," Judaism, 3 (Fall 1954), pp. 488-97; Louis Ginzberg, Students, Scholars and Saints (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1928); Nathan Glazer, American Judaism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957); William Rosenau, The Rabbi in Action (New York; The Bloch Publishing Co., 1937); Max Weber, Ancient Judaism (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1954). Sociologically oriented studies of the rabbi include: Jerome Carlin and Saul Mendlovitz, The Rabbi: A Sociological Study of a Religious Specialist (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1951); Marshall Sklare, Conservative Judaism (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1955); Solomon Zeitlin, Disciples of the Wise (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1945). This content downloaded from 207.46.13.114 on Thu, 26 May 2016 06:06:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms