Engineers and Industrial Growth

Using an economic-historical and comparative approach, this book, first published in 1982, studies the structure and development of the engineering profession in France, German, Sweden and England. Central issues include the number of engineers in a particular society, their education and fields of work after education, the social background of the engineer, their social standing, the role of the state in technical education, and the development and role of the engineering organisations in various respects. The study shows that in three of the four countries, engineers achieved professional status rapidly and became members of their country’s establishment. In the fourth, England, not only did properly qualified engineers enjoy a considerably lower social status, but in numbers they were far fewer than in other parts of Europe. The author discusses this inadequacy in terms of industrial output and development.