Collins, R. The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification. New York: Academic Press, 1979, 222 pp., $13.50
✍ Scribed by Gilbert R. Gredler
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1982
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 241 KB
- Volume
- 19
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3085
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This book will cause many a reader to express consternation, for it raises a question on almost every page as to the worth of courses, degrees, certificates, and licenses necessary to obtain a job in today's society. Briefly, Collins' thesis is that most people can undertake and learn most jobs, and that the skills necessary can be learned on the job through practice by almost any literate person. Collins mentions that the requirements of an occupational position are not fixed, but instead represent the results of bargaining between the persons who fill the positions and those who attempt to control them.
According to Collins, the number of esoteric specialties that supposedly require very extensive training or skill is relatively small. Rather, society has elaborated a structure of more or less easy jobs, largely superfluous, full of administrative make-work and featherbedding because present day technology allows it and because of political pressures from the population wanting work. The results of all this effort lead to the "sinecure society." The importance of one's position in the societal hierarchy becomes the most salient aspect of the individual functioning in our society. The "property" of positions is what is important, and, in labeling it the sinecure society, Collins attempts to show the importance of how individuals and groups seek to continue to hold to positional property and seek to enhance their status.
The percent of the labor force in agriculture has dropped from 37% in 1900 to 5% in 1970; the proportion in the industrial sector has essentially remained the same over the same time period-around 30%. However, the "tertiary" sector has grown to absorb what would have been unemployed workers. Transportation, trade, and finance have grown from 17 to 33% in this 70-year period. The author states that the only important area for growth between 1950 and 1970 has been in the government and service sector, especially in the area of welfare, educational, and military bureaucracies.
The author's thesis is that the use of the credential system has built up the sinecure sector. The United States is considered the most credentialized society in the world, with a corresponding unique educational system. Collins traces the rise of public education through American history until today universities accredit high school programs for college admission and professional schools link themselves to college by making a bachelor's degree a prerequisite to entering their programs. The levels of training of the professional schools then begin to take on occupational significance for certain professions as the members are able to get state-licensed monopolies that incorporate the credential requirements.
Collins' discussion of the professional sector probably will be of the most interest to the readers of these pages. The author cites data indicating that the professional occupations have been the fastest-growing sector of the American labor force, increasing from 4% of the labor force in 1900 to 14% in 1970. According to modern sociological 269