Respectable Professionals : The Origins of the Liberal Professions in Nineteenth-Century Spain

Respectable Professionals contains the contributions of fifteen experts about the birth of new professions and the modernization of working practices in old trades in nineteenth-century Spain. The authors consider that professionalism and respectability were the most relevant elements which structured the bourgeois society in the nineteenth century. The economic changes resulting from the abolition of guilds, the extension of the competences of the State and the liberalization of the economy contributed greatly to the renewal of the labour market. This process took place while some other transformations gave rise to the bourgeois society, such as the urbanization, the updating of the educational system or the organization of professional networks and associations. Starting from the sociology of professions, the book reflects on the historical and sociocultural elements that influenced the development of professional society through different case studies that allow us to compare with other European countries. Nowadays we are living through similar changes in the labour market that should lead us to look back and learn from the challenges faced by professionals in the past.

Raquel Sánchez is Professor of Modern History in the Faculty of Geography and History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She has specialized in the cultural and political history of nineteenth-century Spain. She is the researcher-in-charge of the research project which supports this book.

David Martínez-Vilches is a researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has focused on religious history and currently works on his doctoral dissertation about the religious entourage of the Spanish court during the reign of Isabel II.