Social Closure and Occupational Registration

Abstract

The concept of social closure has been employed by followers of Max Weber as part of an explanation of how members of a social stratum establish and maintain their status, and of how collective social mobility is achieved. Particular attention has been drawn to professional occupations and their registration under statute as an important part of the process of closure. This paper examines the case of the accountancy profession and shows how, after decades of attempting to achieve registration, this goal was abandoned, partly because the costs came to outweigh the rewards and partly because a very similar end was achieved by other means. A model of social closure is presented which allows this exceptional case to be explained without dispensing with existing formulations. The explanation hinges on the nature of occupational knowledge, the nature of the clientele, the historical/cultural antecedents and the interplay of these factors in the `professional arena'.