Recognising and revealing knowers: an enhanced Bernsteinian analysis of masonic recruitment and apprenticeship

Abstract

The increasing opening of French freemasonry to lower social classes raises the question of how individuals from different social backgrounds can be assimilated into the practice of context‐independent ways of speaking and writing. I address these issues by, first, describing a selection by existing members based on the dispositions already possessed by noviciates; a replacement of social hierarchies by a masonic hierarchy; and a cumulative experience for members. Using one dimension of Legitimation Code Theory, I redescribe this process of selection and apprenticeship as being one of recognising and revealing knowers. That is to say, it focuses less on specialist knowledge than on knowers. Finally, I argue that analogical reasoning and tacit pedagogy are central to the issue of how a socially diverse population is integrated within freemasonry. This form of apprenticeship enables members who may not be oriented towards abstraction to learn to engage in the manipulation of context‐independent meanings.

Keywords:

• freemasonry
• apprenticeship
• Basil Bernstein
• Legitimation Code Theory
• tacit pedagogy
• analogical reasoning

Acknowledgement

This article reports on an ongoing PhD research funded by the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche of France.

Notes

1. An association ‘loi 1901’ (Law of 1901) is a non‐profit‐making association of people, legally declared in prefectures.

2. Official statistics declared in prefectures by obediences, available on obediences’ official websites.

3. I especially focus here on lodges in Southern France (Arles, Avignon, Marseille and Nice).

4. With the exception of Anderson’s Constitutions, all quotes from constitutions, interviews and planks have been translated into English by the author. The constitutions are available on obediences’ websites.