Authors:
Presents the history of engineers in Western Europe since 1850
Focuses on the special role of engineers torn between Technology and Economy
Deals with engineers as a professional group instead of with one or a number of well-known path-breakers
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Table of contents (17 chapters)
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Front Matter
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From Guild Traditions to Profession
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Front Matter
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Professional Consciousness: Engineers’ Associations (Approx. 1850–1930)
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Front Matter
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Knowledge, Careers, and Mobility: Engineers from Two Institutes in Numbers and Individually (1880–1990)
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Front Matter
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A Peak of Engineers’ Industrial Power and New Competitors (Approx. 1930–1990)
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Front Matter
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About this book
In his book, pending between history and sociology, on engineers in thirteen countries of the western part of Europe, Professor Rolf Torstendahl approaches the development from around 1850 up to the present situation from different angles.
- One examines the educational patterns and the author shows how widely different types of formation of engineers existed in Britain, France and Germany in the early period. They were paradigmatic for other countries. Differences remain but patterns have gradually become similar.
- From another angle the author makes professional organisations of engineers a main object of study, and they vary from alumni associations to powerful lobby organisations.
- A third approach in the book is to examine engineers versus sociological theories of professionalism on the one hand and theories of managerialism on the other. In the last chapter the author also discusses topics like technocracy and the responsibility of engineers.
Keywords
- Professionalism
- inventiveness
- engineering education
- state protection
- civil service
- operative work
- research development & design
- managerial work
- managerial revolution
Authors and Affiliations
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Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Rolf Torstendahl
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Engineers in Western Europe: Ascent—and Decline?
Book Subtitle: A Profession Torn Between Technology and Economy, 1850–1990, with Outlooks to the Present
Authors: Rolf Torstendahl
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57438-3
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-57437-6Published: 16 January 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-57440-6Published: 16 January 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-57438-3Published: 15 January 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 333
Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 25 illustrations in colour
Topics: History of Technology