Professional life

Profile description and usage

Description & Use case

This profile gathers classes and properties describing the education, training, occupations, etc. of a person. Use this profile to add information on:

• job activities that a person carried out during his/her life,

• positions and functions that a person has held during a certain moment in his/her life .

Find here the profile description on OntoME.

Hint: This profile is often used in combination with the profiles

• Biographical basics & family,

• Interactions, Social Relationships and Memberships of Persons.

Main classes of this profile

Main classes & properties	Use cases
Social Quality	--> uUse the class social quality to register generic professions such as merchant, baker, singer, economist, sailor etc.
Social Quality of an Actor	--> Link a profession (recorded as a "social quality") with a specific individual.
Occupation	--> Use this class to register asserted professional activities that took place at a given moment in time (e.g. teacher, gardener etc.).
Occupation (temporal entity)	--> Provide a (professional) activity carried out by a person, more or less intensively, over a more or less long period of time.

How to differentiate social quality and occupation:

Note that the class occupation is used for asserted professional activities that took place at a given moment in time. In contrast to "social quality" which characterizes the profession of a person independently whether it is executed on a daily basis or not.

Short explanation

Social quality is how I am perceived by my social environment. In my case, I have studied international economics and indicate often 'economist' as my profession. Hence, economist is my profession from a social point of view, my 'social quality'.

However, these days, I am mainly working on this manual you are reading. So, my current 'occupation' should be framed as manual curator.

Extended explanation

The social, professional or political quality of an actor or a person refers to the social position given in time that an individual holds within a given social organisation. It is distinguished from a function or occupation in the sense that it is mostly the society that gives this status to an individual and he/she produces concretely nothing through his/her social position.

Scientist, historian, artist, politics, etc. can be considered as social qualities. While Marie Curie is known as a physicist and chemist, this was not her day to day job. She was a professor of the new chair of physics at the Faculty of Science at the University of Paris from 1904, but also director of a university laboratory.

There are types of Social Qualities that are more ambiguous and could be considered as occupations, or as both occupation and social quality. It is often your research intention that will define whether it is better to talk about a social quality or an occupation. For example Alfred Hitchcock's social quality is as a film director. His occupation is to have directed the films Psycho in 1960 or The Birds in 1963.

Hint: You can also consult the profile 'social and legal qualities of a person' to learn more about possible usage of the class "social quality" and how it differs from "social role".

Most common use cases

Add a profession: Social quality of an actor

1) register the profession/ job titles as social quality

Add all the professions you need via "create a new social quality".

Hint: Many professions are already recorded by other projects, you can find & select them in the list on the right side.

Alternatively you can use the controlled vocabulary section to define the professions (as social qualities):

2) link the person and profession with the class 'social quality of an actor' via the property 'has social quality'

1) Add "social quality of an actor"

A social quality pertains to a person. So the easiest way to connect a person with a profession is to open the person's entity card and click on "has social quality". In case you have multiple options, select "social quality of an actor".

Hint: by selecting "Social Location of an Actor" you can add information about the residency of a person.

2) Fill in info

You can now:

• fill in the information on the time span (start and/or end date) of the exercise of a profession,

• and select the appropriate profession from your list.

Add a Profession/Job as an Occupation

Note that the class occupation is used for asserted professional activities that took place at a given moment in time. In contrast to "social quality" which characterizes the profession of a person independently whether it is executed or not on a daily basis. Find examples here.

1) Register the profession/ job titles as an occupation

Add all professions you need via "create a new Occupation".

Hint: Many professions are already recorded by other projects, you can find & select them in the list on the right side.

Alternatively you can use the controlled vocabulary section to define the jobs (as occupations):

2) Link the person and job/profession with the class 'occupation (temporal)' via the property 'has occupation'

1) Add "Occupation temporal"

An occupation pertains to a person. So the easiest way to connect a person with a profession is to open the person's entity card and click on "has occupation".

2) Fill in info

You can now:

• fill in the information on the time span (start and/or end date) of the exercise of a profession,

• provide the place where the job was performed (took place at),

• register the employer/client (on behalf of),

• and select the appropriate profession from your list.