This book was originally published in 1970. The concept of profession and the characteristics by which certain occupations are claimed to enjoy professional status is a highly appropriate example of the kind of conceptual area which this series aims to explore. As in the first two volumes, on Social Stratification and Migration, the purpose of this volume was to raise a number of questions about the adequacy of theoretical concepts used by sociologists and others to describe social phenomena. Each of the papers expresses a certain dissatisfaction with many of the basic assumptions, which were apparent in much of the literature. The editor in his introductory paper discusses some aspects of the relation of professions to the development of ideology and specified intellectual traditions in the universities. He raises a number of questions about the significance of different 'areas of competence' in which professionals practise in relation to the concerns of the wider society.