Changing social role to the social responsibility of engineers

Despite the richness and diversity of the work of historians and sociologists who have studied French engineers, they remain little-known professionals, even though we make daily use of the material objects they design and the associated services they offer. The upheavals brought about in our lives by changes in technology, production methods and work organization are far-reaching, both for individuals and for humanity, for better or for worse. So what are the values and relationships to the world that underpin the way engineers act? What is their social and political consciousness? Strangely enough, little research has been carried out into these questions, even though the activities of engineers - whether in design, production or expertise - inevitably lead them to question their social responsibility, through the decisions they make that affect the future of human societies and their environment.

To understand why this notion of social responsibility sometimes seems difficult for engineers to perceive or grasp, and why they are sometimes surprised by the mobilization of citizens or political legislation, we need to look back at the socio-history of engineers and their training.

The article begins by outlining the socio-history of engineers and their training from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century. This presentation shows the weight of the French historical roots of engineers, on the side of the military order and the rationality of science and technology, extended by industrial science to the organization of production and work, in connection with the development of the engineer's social role. In the second section, we look at developments in the second half of the twentieth century, highlighting the difficulty for engineers of breaking away from the linear relationship between technical progress and human and social progress, as well as from their social role. Finally, the third point shows how certain contributions from the human and social sciences, particularly in terms of research into science and technology in society, could enable us to take greater account of questions of social responsibility in the professional activities of engineers, who are called upon to become reflective practitioners.