Technologies of Learning: Apprenticeship in Antwerp from the 15th Century to the End of the Ancien Régime

by De Munck, Bert; Boone, Marc

• ISBN13: 9782503522708
• ISBN10: 250352270X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-30
• Publisher: Isd

Summary

The importance of training and education is on the increase. While the production of 'human capital' is seen as a motor for a competitive economy, skills and expertise prove to be necessary for social mobility. Remarkably, in conceiving modern forms of 'apprenticeship', several mechanisms from the acien regime, seem to return. The difference between public and private initiative is disappearing, education and training is being confused, and in order to acquire generic skills such as flexibility, communicability, self-rule, creativity and so on, youngsters have to learn 'in context'. Even for maths, scholars now talk of 'situated learning'.Before the advent of a formal schooling system, training took place on the shop floor, under the roof of a master. The apprentice not only worked but also lived in his master's house and was thus trained and educated at the same time. In cities, this system was formally complemented by an official apprenticeship system, prescribing a minimum term to serve and an obligatory masterpiece for those who wanted to become masters themselves. Traditionally, historians see this as an archaic and backward way of training, yet this book's aim is to show that it was instead a very flexible and dynamic system, perfectly in tune with the demands of an early modern economy.In order to understand it fully, however, we should differentiate the informal training system organised via a 'free market' of indentures on the one hand and the institutionalised system of craft guilds on the other. In Antwerp, early modern guilds had a project of 'emancipating' their members. They didn't simply produce certain skills, but through a system of quality marks defended the honour of craftsmen. This is the difference with current practices. By representing hands-on skills as superior, guilds supplied a sort of symbolic capital for workers.

Table of Contents

List of Plates, Graphs and Tables
List of Abbreviations
General Introduction
Historiography and Goals	p. 1
History and Context	p. 16
Methods and Sources	p. 25
The "Institutionalization" Of Apprenticeship
Introduction: The Myths of the Guilds	p. 37
"Market Education": Apprenticeship in Indentures	p. 41
Learning through Indentures	p. 41
From Stealing to Shopping	p. 49
Learning at Work	p. 53
Apprenticeship in Guilds	p. 59
The Official Terms of Apprenticeship	p. 59
Masterpieces	p. 68
Entrance Fees	p. 85
Conclusion: Guilds and Human Capital	p. 114
Social Mobility and the Labour Market
Introduction: Flexible Labour Relations Versus Rigid Corporate Structures?	p. 127
Social Mobility After the Guilds	p. 131
The Norm and Reality of Small Workshops: Comparative Perspectives	p. 131
Number of Apprentices per Master: a Changing Norm	p. 140
Number of Apprentices Per Master: a Changing Reality	p. 144
Social Mobility from a Bottom Up Perspective	p. 155
Free and Unfree Journeymen: Changing Barriers	p. 155
Master Status: A Changing Objective?	p. 161
Geographic Mobility: Cities as the Promised Land or as Meccas for Apprentices?	p. 169
Ages and Careers, Apprentices Caught between Spending Power and Formalities	p. 177
The Freedom to Choose, to Stay, or to Run Away	p. 185
Conclusion: Guilds as a Matter of Choice?	p. 192
Apprenticeship as a Symbolic Practice
Das Ganze Haus: Apprentices Between Living And Working	p. 201
Introduction	p. 201
Living-in Apprentices: A Disappearing Custom?	p. 206
Apprentices Between the Guild, the Family, and the Acquisition of Skills	p. 214
Conclusion: Between Training and Education	p. 223
The Symbolic Violence of Apprenticeship
Introduction: Guilds as the Backbone of Urban Society and Product Quality	p. 229
The Holy House of Master Status	p. 233
Preserving Product Quality and Trust	p. 236
Defining Competence and Status	p. 243
The Invention of Talent. Apprentices at the Academy of Fine Arts	p. 250
Annexes	p. 277
Selected Bibliography	p. 283
Index	p. 293
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.