[A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO CARE AS RELATIONNAL WORK]

The article draws on sociological research conducted in the early 2000, about the training of French nurses. The author shows the transformation of a model of work and training of caring professions. The model that was traditionally focused on curative dimensions evolves into an organization that requires articulating both care and cure dimensions. It also points out the role and the growing importance of the value of autonomy. This transformation is all the more difficult, as it is hindered by corporative defenses by the existing medical establishment, which goes unchallenged by the public authorities in France. The article uses this analytical framework to understand and describe the transformations which affect other consulting professions, such as remedial education and social work. In these cases as well, the value of autonomy is of the utmost importance. It renders the articulation and association of education/care and social work/care, as indispensable. Furthermore, the links among autonomy, duration and chronicity create the need for their integration in long-term care practices. Their relational dimension needs to be developed and professionalized, in its articulation with what currently structures this sector (biomedical knowledge in the health sector). A sociological framework at the crossroad of the theories of care (Tronto 2009), the sociology of situated action (Goffman 1991, Suchman 1987), and the interactionist sociology of professions (Freidson 1984, Abbott 2003), produces an accurate understanding about changes which effects these activities and their impact on educational models associated with them.