On the Institutional Approach to the Study of Links between Vocation and Education

The importance of researching profession & education as factors of social status is illustrated quoting from Max Weber (1994) & P. A. Sorokin (eg, 1993). Their ideas were drawn on as Russian sociology elaborated the basic conceptual framework of the linkage between profession & education from the 1960s to the 1980s. The principal contributors to this endeavor are presented, & the basic research orientations are characterized: the foci, objectives, & methods of action-vocational, personal-qualificational, stratificational, & institutional approaches are specified. The viability of the institutional perspective is stressed, arguing that research conducted from this angle yields the most comprehensive results as it integrates the aspects emphasized in other approaches. The process of vocational institutionalization is analyzed, & its basic components are listed. The institutions of profession & education & their relationship to other social institutions (eg, the state, mass media, family) are examined. 4 References. Z. Dubiel