PROFESSIONS AND IDEOLOGY: ontological determinations and room for maneuver
Keywords: Social Function of the Professions. Ideology. Reproduction of Capital. Class society. Education. State.
The object of study developed in this research refers to the functions fulfilled by the professions located in the ideological complex, in relation to the reproduction of the capital system and the construction of emancipatory processes. For this purpose, a historical-ontological study of the professions was carried out, through a documentary review of other authors who have carried out historical research on education, class struggle, science, social division of labor, the State and the professions, as well as a statistical sample of the current academic offerings in the ‘best universities in the world’ according to the QS Ranking. The method inspired by Marx and the developments of Georg Lukács are taken up again as a theoretical-methodological basis because they allow us to apprehend the ontological foundations of professions in general, and those with an ideological function. In this way, a historical-ontological analysis is made that evidences that professions appear in history with the first society divided into classes (Egypt) and from there continuities and ruptures are identified that respond to the needs of social reproduction in relation to the mode of production; the economy as the predominant moment. Likewise, it is clear that professions with an ideological function were the first to appear (the profession of scribe in Egypt) and that many centuries later, with capitalism, professions directly imbricated in production are created (especially as intellectual work). Moreover, the contradictory and unequal movement between dependence and relative autonomy is recognized, having as its basis the alternative decisions of singular human beings who, from a range of possibilities given by the social totality, give direction to the partial complexes of the professions. It is with this that we understand the possibilities that professional subjects have to act within class society, particularly in capitalism, as a reflection of the class struggle and of the antagonistic projects of society.