Translated and reviewed by Matheus Lucas Hebling
August 25, 2025
The article O declínio do ideal cultural de homem profissional na sociedade pós-industrial: consequências subjetivas e no laço social [The Decline of the Cultural Ideal of the Professional Man in Post-Industrial Society: Subjective Consequences and Consequences for the Social Bond], by María Cecilia Ipar (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning, CEBRAP), investigates how the cultural ideal of the “professional man” — a model of personality built around duty and professional identity — lost its centrality in contemporary society.
The author analyzes this process from the second half of the twentieth century onward, seeking to understand its effects both on social relations and on the constitution of subjectivity. The study takes as its point of departure a reading of modernity drawn from Max Weber and proposes an interdisciplinary reflection that brings together sociology, cultural history, and psychoanalysis.
The trajectory of this ideal is reconstructed from its religious origins in Reformed Protestantism through to its consolidation as a secular reference point in industrial society. According to the author, the notion of Beruf (vocation, or calling) came to symbolically organize the meaning of work and of social position, profoundly shaping the way individuals constructed their identities and understood their place in the world.
In industrial society, this ideal sustained not only the work ethic but also values of collective belonging and social cohesion.
This landscape began to change with the structural transformations of capitalism in the closing decades of the twentieth century. The advance of neoliberalism, the flexibilization of labor, and the weakening of the welfare state all contributed to the loss of the profession’s centrality as an axis of identity.
The article shows that this brought about a rupture in the articulation between work and citizenship, accompanied by growing forms of precarization and social exclusion.
The author further proposes a dialogue with Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to explore the subjective effects of this process. One of the central points is the weakening of what is called the “paternal function,” which operates as a symbolic instance regulating social bonds.
To the extent that the paternal function loses legitimacy, space opens up for the rise of forms of subjectivation marked by the demands of individual pleasure, self-exploitation, and affective insecurity that are characteristic of capitalism today.
Throughout the text, Ipar avoids interpreting the decline of the “professional man” ideal as an isolated phenomenon. She proposes instead that it be understood as part of a broader shift in culture and social organization, tied to the adaptive demands of contemporary capitalism. The article contributes to the debate on how cultural ideals shape both the structure of societies and the constitution of subjects.
In summary
- The study analyzes the decline of the cultural ideal of the “professional man,” central to Western modernity and bound up with the work ethic.
- It takes as its starting point a reading of Max Weber on the concept of Beruf (vocation), understood as a symbolic coordinate that structured social identities and subjectivity in industrial society.
- It examines how this ideal lost force from the second half of the twentieth century onward, amid the flexibilization of labor and the advance of neoliberalism.
- It discusses the social impacts of this shift, such as the rupture between work and citizenship, the precarization of labor relations, and the weakening of social bonds.
- It proposes a dialogue with Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to address the subjective consequences, with particular attention to the hollowing out of the paternal function as a symbolic structure.
- It argues that this symbolic decline favored the rise of forms of subjectivation marked by imperatives of individual pleasure and by instability of identity.
- It concludes that the weakening of this cultural ideal both reflects and sustains the transformations of contemporary capitalism, linking changes in culture, work, and subjectivity.
About the author
María Cecilia Ipar holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of São Paulo. She is a postdoctoral researcher at CEBRAP, in the Law and Democracy Research Group, under the supervision of Marcos Nobre (State University of Campinas, Unicamp).
Publication details
Title: O declínio do ideal cultural de homem profissional na sociedade pós-industrial: consequências subjetivas e no laço social
Author: María Cecilia Ipar
Year of publication: 2025
Available in: Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, no. 44
Keywords: professional man, cultural ideal, work ethic, Max Weber, Beruf, vocation, post-industrial society, Lacanian psychoanalysis, paternal function, social bond, subjectivation, neoliberalism, labor flexibilization, precarization, contemporary capitalism
