The decline of the cultural ideal of the professional man in post-industrial society: consequences for subjectivity and social bonds

Abstract: In Max Weber’s diagnosis of modernity, the term Beruf can be understood as a fundamental symbolic guiding principle for guiding Western society towards industrial development. The Weberian diagnosis is temporal and pertains to a certain dialectic of action-structure through which Western culture shapes human subjectivity, while that subjectivity, in turn, becomes historically singular due to the typical actions of the latter. In contemporary times, the cultural ideal of the professional man has drastically lost the holistic symbolic power it once had to determine both the meaning of the human condition and the inscription within the basic structure of society. The crisis of this cultural ideal can be seen as a condition of possibility for a substantive transformation in capitalism since the second half of the 20th century, as well as decisively affecting the malaise in subjectivity and the weakening of social bonds today. This article aims to articulate a theoretical debate that combines elements of the action plan and social structure, contributing to the development of a broader social diagnosis regarding the impact of the depreciation of professional duty on the weakening of social bonds and the current malaise in subjectivity.