Occupational control: New balances between state, market and family. Business consultancy and social care work in Germany during the 1990s

Sociological theories on professions have for a long time been dominated by the idea of two different models of professionalisation, the Anglo-Saxon model, which is based on the ideal of self-regulating professional bodies and the continental approach with its emphasis on state regulations. However, the changing political and economic conditions of professional work have forced market-oriented strategies even into countries typically defined as continental. In this paper, the development of new strategies of two occupations in Germany, i.e. business consultancy and care work for the elderly, which have not yet reached occupational respectively professional status, will be analysed within the framework of the consequences of the political and economical changes during the 1990s. The focus of the presentation will be the creation of new balances within the market, state and family oriented strategies and their implications regarding the issue of genderand social equality within the work force.