Technologies of Learning. Apprenticeship in Antwerp Guilds from the 15th Century to the end of the Ancien Regime

Bert De Munck

ISBN 10: 250352270X / ISBN 13: 9782503522708

Published by Brepols (Turnhout), 2007

About this Item

Dutch Technologies of Learning examines the organisation and evolution of apprenticeship within the guilds of Antwerp from the fifteenth century to the end of the Ancien Régime. Bert De Munck analyses how practical knowledge, technical skills and professional expertise were transmitted through guild structures and explores the social, economic and cultural dimensions of vocational training. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book offers new insights into the relationship between education, labour, craftsmanship and urban development, making it an important contribution to the study of guilds, urban history and early modern Europe.

Seller Inventory # 10158782

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Technologies of Learning. Apprenticeship in Antwerp Guilds from the 15th Century to the end of the Ancien Regime
• Publisher: Brepols (Turnhout)
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 250352270X
• ISBN 13: 9782503522708
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1.
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Catalog

About this title

Synopsis

The importance of training and education is on the increase. While the production of 'human capital' is seen as a motor for a competitive economy, skills and expertise prove to be necessary for social mobility. Remarkably, in conceiving modern forms of 'apprenticeship', several mechanisms from the acien regime, seem to return. The difference between public and private initiative is disappearing, education and training is being confused, and in order to acquire generic skills such as flexibility, communicability, self-rule, creativity and so on, youngsters have to learn 'in context'. Even for maths, scholars now talk of 'situated learning'.

Before the advent of a formal schooling system, training took place on the shop floor, under the roof of a master. The apprentice not only worked but also lived in his master's house and was thus trained and educated at the same time. In cities, this system was formally complemented by an official apprenticeship system, prescribing a minimum term to serve and an obligatory masterpiece for those who wanted to become masters themselves. Traditionally, historians see this as an archaic and backward way of training, yet this book's aim is to show that it was instead a very flexible and dynamic system, perfectly in tune with the demands of an early modern economy.

In order to understand it fully, however, we should differentiate the informal training system organised via a 'free market' of indentures on the one hand and the institutionalised system of craft guilds on the other. In Antwerp, early modern guilds had a project of 'emancipating' their members. They didn't simply produce certain skills, but through a system of quality marks defended the honour of craftsmen. This is the difference with current practices. By representing hands-on skills as superior, guilds supplied a sort of symbolic capital for workers.