The natural history of professionalisation and its effects on valuation theory and practice in the UK and Germany

Abstract

Professions have evolved in contrasting ways in different countries, although this has only recently been recognised by sociologists, who long had an Anglo‐American bias in their work on this subject. In the UK professions have generally evolved “bottom‐up” (i.e. through the activities of the professionals) in contrast to “top‐down” (through state intervention) in Germany. Since the valuation profession in Germany has not been regulated by the state it has not evolved as a high status occupation and lacks high entry standards or effective self‐regulation. This has resulted in a different approach to valuation theory and practice from that in the UK.