Professionalisation and Professional Representations from a Methodological Review to Practical Issues

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Research conducted in the context of studies tackling the question of the professionalisation has, for some, used the conceptual framework of social representations. It is therefore a question of referring to the intervention of a representational process or of understanding how representations of professions are constructed, or to grasp the question of social representations as indicators of the emergence or dynamics of a particular professional identity. This question, which falls within the theoretical articulation, appears to be important. However, since theories involve the use of a number of methodologies and because methodologies are never unrelated to theoretical questions, it seems necessary to offer a synthesis of the possibilities offered by the theory of social representations. This will enable studies on professionalisation to access useful and relevant methods in accordance with their objectives. This contribution will therefore address the links between professionalisation and social/professional representations and proposes to draw up a guided inventory of the methods that can be used. This need is all the more important because it impacts the way we can carry out studies in relation to the questions that can be asked in reference to the fields we deal with.