Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WORKING PAPERS
Centre for Comparative Labour Studies
Department of Sociology
University of Warwick
COVENTRY CV4 7AL
Number 1
August 1995
3.00
ISSN 1360-2020
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE i
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
Technocratic tendencies in professional education and socialisation:
different patterns, similar outcomes?
CONCLUSION
22
REFERENCES
22
APPENDIX A
24
APPENDIX B
27
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE ii
Abstract
The paper examines the process of becoming a professional engineer in different countries against a backdrop of the
global socio-technological, cultural and environmental contradictions of the modern age. The comparative focus of the
paper is Britain and Belarus. It is suggested that the technocratic paradigm of professional mentality and culture which
until quite recently used to be characteristic of most efficient engineers nowadays becomes increasingly incompatible
with the progress of national economies and human civilization in general. The argumentation is developed to stress the
urgent need for democratically-minded technical workers with a more rounded, interdisciplinary approach and integrated
vision of technology-practice.
On the basis of original research evidence and published materials from analogous studies the roots and reasons for an
apparent technocratic bias in engineering students consciousness are analysed. They are seen to be linked to the nature of
the occupation, which appears to be similar across industrialised countries, and to the patterns of professional education
and socialisation which are quite specific in diverse national contexts. These peculiarities in the formation of technical
workers, determined by the historical differences in the timing and character of industrialisation, are argued to produce
distinct Western and Soviet sub-types of technocracy. Both of them, however, equally hinder the process of
democratisation in the engineering profession.
The possibilities, preconditions and principles of reforms in technical education and training aimed to achieve the
required shift of paradigms in the professional mentality of future engineers are discussed.
Acknowledgements
This dissertation could not have been completed without help and support of many people. I am deeply grateful to Rob
Flynn (Department of Sociology) and Chris March (Faculty of Engineering) from the University of Salford who heavily
contributed to my research project by realising all the field work there. To Prof J.Flower and Prof D.Whitehouse at the
Department of Engineering, University of Warwick I owe particular thanks for giving me access and creating a
favourable atmosphere which made my interviews with their students a pleasure.
I would like to express special gratitude to Simon Clarke for his liberal and friendly style of supervision which has
encouraged me and helped to activate my own analytical capabilities. I owe a great deal indeed to Richard Lampard who
significantly assisted me in coping with the quantitative side of the research. Special thanks are due to Peter Fairbrother,
Tony Elger, Ian Procter and other colleagues at the University of Warwick who helped me to keep my mind open.
Yuri Alexeichenko
The Author
Yuri Alexeichenko was born in Gomel, Belarus, in 1965. He graduated from Gomel State University with a degree in
History and Social Sciences in 1987. From 1987-90 he taught in the Department of Political History and Politology of the
Gomel Polytechnical Institute. Since 1990 he has been a postgraduate student in the Institute of Sociology of the
Belarusian Academy of Sciences. He attended the ESRC/British Council/Soros Summer School for Soviet Sociologists at
the University of Manchester in 1991, and spent the academic year 1993-4 in the Sociology Department at Warwick,
where he held a British Council Scholarship, graduating with an MA in Sociology with distinction. In addition to his
work on the professional training of engineers, Yuri has published on the consequences of Chernobyl, which is close to
his home city of Gomel. Yuri is curently working as a freelance sociologist in Belarus. He can be contacted at Ul.
Golovatskogo 21-60,
Gomel 246028 Belarus, telephone (7) 0232-572541.
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE 3
Introduction
This dissertation presents some outcomes of a
research project devoted to the problems of the
professional formation of future engineers within
systems of higher technical education in Belarus and
England, which I started in 1991. Since that time my
sociological world-view and, consequently, the
methodology of collecting, analysing and interpreting
data have undergone a quite deep and painful evolution:
the erosion of a positivist image of sociological
knowledge has been followed by an obsession with a
spirit of radical doubt over the adequacy and validity of
any information about individual and society obtained
by whatever methods. Indeed it is difficult to say at the
moment whether this process has come to an end and
equally to characterise my current research outlook
more precisely and in more detail than by the single
word pluralism`.
This factor has shaped the mode of theoretical
argumentation and the ways of presenting and analysing
empirical materials employed in the dissertation which
one might consider as too patchy, variegated and
lacking articulated adherence to any particular
sociological tradition. The other characteristic feature of
the text is that it tends to provide more questions than
answers, more hypotheses and presuppositions than
theories or solid conclusions.
The latter stems not only from the peculiarities of the
research approach but also from the nature of the
research problem. The process of becoming
professional (either in engineering or in any other
occupation), the emergence and development of ones
professional mentality with the particular pattern of
occupational values, norms, and preferences tending to
define the professional and even the life path of an
individual was never an easy subject to study.
Firstly, the researcher has to deal with the quite
delicate inner sphere of human abilities, inclinations,
interests and choices which are often not clearly
understood even by their possessor. Secondly, because
professional socialisation as an interaction between the
unique inner world of a person and a range of socioprofessional institutions and factors (which are quite
specific in different societies) occurs in a fairly
individual manner and, therefore, requires considerable
discretion in making broad generalisations or universal
conclusions in this area.
However, despite the problems and limitations
involved one can hardly deny the importance of studies
devoted to the formation of professional consciousness
and culture of different occupational groups under
contemporary conditions of global technological, socioeconomic, geopolitical and ecological transformations
and challenges. Profound research seems to be
particularly essential in the case of such professional
strata as engineers and scientists who play a very
significant role in any modern society and who are able
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE 4
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE 5
Chapter 1
Analysing the nature of engineering: is the technocratic paradigm
inevitable?
Alongside the developed discussion of significant
diversities in the social organisation of technical work
and the status of being an engineer in different countries
(Yadov 1977; Whalley 1986; Lane 1989; Lawrence
1992; McCormick 1992; Meiksins & Smith 1993a,
1993b) there is always a general recognition of
similarities in the nature and functions of engineering
labour across industrialised economies.
In broad context engineers are assumed to be
technical experts, the translators of industrial design
practice, the masters of production control and
surveillance (Lee & Smith 1992: 2). According to a
more detailed (Soviet style) definition their functions
encompass creative use of scientific knowledge;
designing and building of industrial enterprises,
machinery and equipment; development or application
of production methods based on the systematic use of
different tools, or the design and application of these
tools grounded upon firm knowledge of the principles
involved in their work (Tushko & Khaskelevich 1971:
35). Basically the same characteristics are echoed in the
other literature on the issue published either in the West
or in the East (Cotgrove & Box 1970; Finniston 1980;
Glover & Kelly 1987; Kugel & Nikandrov 1971;
Chugunova 1986; Shepetko 1988).
The majority of writers are unanimous in defining
engineering through its relations to the theoretical body
of scientific knowledge and practical needs of industry
and society. The nature of these relations and, therefore,
of the profession in general appears to be universal and
can be quite exactly characterised by the words of the
engineering undergraduate who argued:
Engineering to me always seemed to be a mode
of binding the practical elements of science
together in a way that pure subjects like maths
and physics dont because they tend to
concentrate on theoretical aspects. From that
point of view engineering is an absolute real life
kind of subject which is directly applicable to
whats going on in reality (2 nd year
undergraduate in manufacturing systems
engineering, University of Warwick).
The main peculiarity of technical work as well as the
chief feature of its distinction from pure science are
explicitly grasped here. Engineering is an application of
scientific principles and laws in search of practical
solutions to real life problems. However, to use
knowledge is not the same as to create it and this is the
main criterion to draw the difference between scientific
and technical jobs. For unlike pure science oriented on
the production of theoretical knowledge engineering is
about making things (Whalley 1986: 57).
Table 1
Attitudes of Belarusian and English teaching staff to the necessity of
enhancing the ethical orientation of engineering education and
training.
Answers to question:
'It is necessary to pay
Belarusian
English
Total
more attention to ethical
staff
staff
problems when training
future engineers?
No. (%)
No. (%)
No. (%)
Yes
38 (63.3)
10 (58.8)
48 (62.3)
Difficult to say
20 (33.3)
5 (29.4)
25 (32.5)
No
2 ( 3.3)
2 (11.8)
4 ( 5.2)
60 (100)
17 (100)
77 (100)
Chi-square= 1.92
p= .383
COMPARATIVE LABOUR STUDIES
Table 2
The actual referring of Belarusian and English teaching staff to issues
of engineering ethics during the educational process.
Answers to question:
'Do you discuss the
Belarusian
English
Total
problems of engineers'
staff
staff
professional ethics
when teaching students?
No. (%)
No. (%)
No. (%)
Yes, often
35 (58.3)
4 (23.5)
39 (50.6)
Difficult to say
24 (40.0)
9 (52.9)
33 (42.9)
No, never
1 ( 1.7)
4 (23.5)
5 ( 6.5)
60 (100)
17 (100)
77 (100)
Chi-square= 13.44
p= .001
Chapter 2
Technocratic tendencies in professional education and socialisation:
different patterns, similar outcomes?
Unlike the nature and functions of technical labour the
process of becoming a professional engineer in different
countries tends to significantly variegate. The majority
of commentators explaining national diversities in the
organisation and operating of EET look at specifics of
the route to industrialisation that was taken by a
particular society, at the historical patterns and
outcomes of struggle among employers, technical
workers, the state, and preindustrial forces which have
influenced the educational system and professional
socialisation routines, as well as broad social attitudes
and stereotypes concerning the occupation (Glover &
Kelly 1987; Lane 1989; Meiksins & Smith 1993a;
Meiksins & Smith 1993b). In this context national
peculiarities are seen as the summation of historical
differences of the timing and entry into industrial
capitalism [which] is reproduced through a societys
institutions(Lee & Smith 1992: 8).
According to these criteria institutions of engineering
education and professional socialisation in the UK and
ex-USSR present two extremely opposite cases. The
Anglo-Saxon tradition of EET explicitly reflects the
experience of the country which was historically the
first to industrialise under conditions of laissez-faire
principles in state industrial and educational policies,
with the persistence of certain preindustrial patterns and
routines. As to the Soviet EET presented in the
Belarusian case, it is a vivid example of an educational
tradition formed and developed under strongest state
control in conditions of late forced industrialisation
and revolutionary break-up with the past. Although it
is not possible to consider in detail the cases of other
industrial countries within the limits of the present
paper, I would argue that their traditions of EET
informed by the same factors (character of
industrialisation, degree of state involvement etc.)
combine in different ways the features of the two
extremes in question and, therefore, can be placed
somewhere in between them.
The national diversities in the timing and pattern of
industrialisation appear to result in the different social
status and prestige of engineering across industrialised
economies. Thus in Great Britain the minor role of the
state in capitalist development and the preservation of
pre-industrial vestiges in the organisation of technical
work, and in employers and public attitudes towards it,
have determined the relatively low status of engineers
in comparison to other professionals or to their
counterparts in mainland Europe and America. These
issues are scrutinized in my paper The Character and
Extent of the Professionalisation of Engineers in Britain
and the Implications of This for Their Position within
Management, published as paper 3 in this series, which
Table 3
Staff assessment of undergraduates awareness of the future profession at the
beginning of their professional education
Answers on question:
How many first year
Belarusian
English
Total
students have the correct
staff
staff
image of their future
profession?
No. (%)
No. (%)
No. (%)
Majority have the correct
image
Some students have
the correct image
Majority do not have
the correct image
Practically no one has
the correct image
3 ( 5.0)
2 (11.8)
5 ( 6.5)
23 (38.3)
11 (64.7)
34 (44.2)
29 (48.3)
3 (17.6)
32 (41.6)
5 ( 8.3)
1 ( 5.9)
6 ( 7.8)
60 (100)
17 (100)
77 (100)
p= .036
Table 4
Quality of the career guidance work with the undergraduates prior to entering the
University (staff assessment)
Level of quality
Belarusian
English
Total
staff
staff
No. (%)
No. (%)
No. (%)
High
1 ( 1.7)
Higher than medium 7 (11.9)
Medium
28 (47.5)
Lower than medium 12 (20.3)
Low
11 (18.6)
59 (100)
0 (00.0)
2 (11.8)
9 (52.9)
6 (35.3)
1 (1.3)
9 (11.8)
37 (48.7)
18 (23.7)
0 (00.0)
17 (100)
11 (14.5)
76 (100)
Table 5
Undergraduates attitudes to their profession/speciality
Chi-square= 15.54
English
students
No. (%)
42 (60.0)
24 (34.3)
4 ( 5.7)
111 (41.1)
119 (44.1)
40 (14.8)
70 (100)
270 (100)
Total
p= .000
Table 7
Evolution
Table 6 in the undergraduates image of the future profession under the
impact
education
and training
Stabilityofofoccupational
undergraduates
vocational
choice
Answers
to
question:
Answers to question:
Has
your
ofyour
the
Would
youimage
repeat
Belarusian
English
intendedTotal
profession Belarusian
English
Total
Table 9
The undergraduates satisfaction with the quality of different forms of educational and training process
(satisfaction indexs value ranges between +1 and -1)
Indexes
Belarus
Forms of education
Haenszel
and training
Table 8
of
England
Ib
Ie
satisfaction
(Ib-Ie)
^I
Do3. you
enjoyonactivities
Lectures
common
education subjects
(maths, physics etc)
students
.06
Chi-square= 26.30
Chi2
3.41
NS
6.55
.011
10.58
.001
.23
10.81
.001
68 (25.5)
.19
127 (47.6)
60 (22.5)
.11
12 ( 4.5)
.35
5.82
.016
1.74
NS
22.86
.000
students
.27
connected
with the
4. Tutorials/practical
classes on
common
professional
training?
No. (%)
education subjects
-.08
.15
No. (%)
5. Lectures on social
Yes subjects
38 (19.0)
30 (44.8)
-.04
-.23
6. Seminars/tutorials
More
likely Yes than No102 (51.0) 25 (37.3)
on social sciences
More (where
likely appropriate)
No than Yes54-.12
(27.0)
6 -.23
( 9.0)
No7. Exams, tests
6 ( 3.0)
6 (.40
9.0)
.05
200 (100)
Mantel-
67 (100)
.21
No. (%)
267 (100)
p= .000
Table 10
The level of undergraduates independence in performing of educational
tasks according to their self-assessment
Scale
Belarusian
English
Total
of
levels
students
No. (%)
students
No. (%)
No. (%)
Completely independent41 (63.1) 24 (36.9)
Quite independent 62 (67.4)
30 (32.6)
Semi-independent 87 (85.3)
15 (14.7)
Non-independent
7 (87.5)
1 (12.5)
Total
197 (73.8)
70 (26.2)
Chi-square= 13.56
65 (100)
92 (100)
102 (100)
8 (100)
267 (100)
p= .004
Table 11
The undergraduates possession of different socio-professional qualities according to the assessment of teaching
staff (possession indexs value ranges between +1 and -1)
Socio-professional
Haenszel
qualities
P
Indexes
Belarus
Ib
of
England
possession
(Ib-Ie)
Ie
^I
MantelChi2
1.
Interest in the
future profession
-.15
.29
.44
12.40
.000
2.
Desire to study,
to obtain knowledge
-.24
.09
.33
7.20
.007
Autonomy and
independence in
study and work
-.25
.09
.34
9.03
.003
Initiative and
creative approach
-.40
.06
.46
19.19
.000
-.26
-.27
.01
0.66
NS
3.
4.
5.
Humanitarian
knowledge (arts,
music, literature)
Table 12
Self-assessment of undergraduates preparedness for different aspects of their future career (preparedness indexs
value ranges between +1 and -1)
Preparedness in the
Haenszel
area of
P
1.
professional
knowledge & skills .01
2.
social sciences
knowledge
-.26
3.
economic & finance
knowledge
-.04
4.
humanitarian
knowledge (arts, music,
literature etc.)
-.01
5.
6.
7.
8.
research
activities
management
knowledge & skills
professional
ethics
ecological
knowledge
Ib
Ie
(Ib-Ie)
Chi2
^I
.25
.24
23.76
.000
-.13
.13
3.77
.052
-.06
.02
0.15
NS
-.34
.33
21.89
.000
-.44
-.08
.36
32.47
.000
-.13
.04
.27
6.46
.011
-.02
-.04
.02
0.11
NS
.01
.01
.00
0.00
NS
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE 20
Conclusion
It would be an unjustified presumption to
consider that all aspects of the technocracydemocracy dilemma inherent to the professional
formation of modern engineers in different
countries are covered in this paper. I am also not
sure whether the empirical basis of the work is
explicit enough to support its theoretical efforts
aimed to outline my main research concern.
One should bear in mind that due to the
limitations mentioned in Introduction my original
data are unable to prove anything themselves and,
therefore, can be used only as illustrations or
background for the argumentation based upon more
representative analytical sources. But even in this
case, the treatment of first hand quantitative and
qualitative materials was probably far from ideal.
My preoccupation with the central problems of the
research has originated a sort of sociological tunnel
vision, when other possible explanations of
empirical evidence may have been ignored.
Thus, gender differences between Belarusian and
English samples and, correspondingly, between
EET in the two countries were not taken into
account. While there is quite a significant
proportion of female students within Soviet higher
education (in our case it was 46.5% of respondents
in Gomel against 15.7% in Salford), according to
some large-scale studies that can be an explanation
for the low indices of undergraduates
independence and initiative in training and research
work, as well as for poor self-assessments of
professional preparedness in general (Kozlov 1990:
149-53).
Another missing explanatory factor is an analysis
of the socio-political situation in the ex-USSR at
the moment of my surveys (1990/91). Unlike
England, where radical societal transformations are
largely a matter of history (especially in the
perception of engineering undergraduates), the
hot` atmosphere of social confrontation between a
newly emerged democratic opposition and the old
communist orthodoxy (which later resulted in the
August coup) might have had an impact on
students views registered by the survey. In this
context some extreme negative judgements can be
seen not as a reflection of the real situation but
rather as manifestations of radical criticism and
nihilism which became wide spread in the whole
society, and especially among undergraduates, at
that time. There might be other hidden agencies
that influenced the views and responses of future
engineers in Belarus and England.
However, even taking them all into consideration,
one can hardly deny the main argument of the
paper, that there is an apparent technocratic bias in
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
PAGE 21
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Obrazovaniya v Rossii` Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 31 March.
Whalley, P. (1986), The Social Production of Technical Work: The Case of British Engineers, London:
Heinemann.
Windolf, P. & Wood, S. with Hohn, H.M. & Manwaring, T. (1988), Recruitment and Selection in the Labour
Market: A Comparative Study of Britain and West Germany, Aldershot: Avebury.
Yadov, V.A. (1977) (Ed), Sotsialno-psikhologichesky Portet Inzhenera, Moscow: Mysl.
Zobov, R.A. & Sugakova, L.I. (1990), Spetsifika Formirovaniya Mirovozzreniya Studencheskoi Molodezhi v
Usloviyakh Demokratizatsii i Perestroiki,` In V.T.Lisovsky & U.Schtarke (Eds), Vypusknik 80-kh:
Sociologichesky Ocherk, Leningrad: Leningradsky Universitet.
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
APPENDIX A
Ranking of undergraduates' considerations about narrow professional qualities of a contemporary engineer according to the index of importance (index's value
ranges between -1 and +1).
Personal
Belarus
qualities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Ib
England
RANK
Ie
RANK
(Ib - Ie)
^I
Mantel-Haenszel's
chi-squarea
Spearmen's rho
.60
2.0
.54
3.5
.06
1.01
NSb
.63
3.0
.59
5.0
.04
0.42
NS
.87
.43
7.0
1.0
.76
.27
7.0
1.0
.11
.16
5.45
6.52
.019
.011
.82
6.0
.54
3.5
.28
41.71
.000
.66
4.0
.52
2.0
.14
5.10
.014
.72
5.0
.73
6.0
.01
0.11
NS
.6847
P= .045
a Here and elsewhere in the analogous tables Mantel-Haenszel's chi-square is applied as a more precise linear measure of association for ordinal data which are used
to calculate indices.
b Here and elsewhere in the other tables sign 'NS` (not significant) appears when p > .05
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
Table ii
Ranking of undergraduates' considerations about broad socio-professional qualities necessary for a contemporary engineer according to the index of importance
(index's value ranges between +1 and -1)
Personal
Belarus
qualities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Spearmen's rho
England
Ib
RANK
Ie
RANK
.42
.79
7.0
11.0
-.14
.61
1.0
11.0
.30
.40
4.0
5.5
.48
.31
-.26
1.0
.53
(Ib - Ie)
^I
Mantel-Haenszel's
chi-square
.56
.18
49.08
12.45
.000
.000
7.0
5.5
.18
.09
7.43
1.70
.006
NS
-.07
2.0
.19
5.51
.019
9.0
.60
10.0
.07
1.05
NS
.51
-.17
8.0
2.0
.28
.16
4.0
3.0
.23
.33
10.72
16.17
.001
.000
.67
-.09
10.0
3.0
.53
.31
9.0
5.5
.14
.40
2.02
20.41
NS
.000
.40
5.5
.50
8.0
.10
2.03
NS
.6461
P= .016
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
Table iii
The impact of different factors/reasons on undergraduates' vocational choice according to the index of influence (index's value ranges between -1 and +1).
Factor or
Belarus
England
reason
INDEXb
INDEXe
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
(Ib - Ie)
^I
Mantel-Haenszel's
chi-square
-.55
-.03
.52
30.66
.000
-.32
.15
.47
24.42
.000
-.15
.52
.67
41.07
.000
-.59
.00
.59
43.60
.000
-.81
-.16
.65
54.20
.000
-.85
-.59
.26
13.55
.000
-.19
-.34
-.42
-.64
.23
.30
4.36
9.29
.037
.002
.40
-.16
.35
-.66
.05
.50
.25
17.62
NS
.000
The Professional Formation of a Contemporary Engineer: Between Paradigms of Technocracy & Democracy
APPENDIX B
Dendrograms presenting results of hierarchical cluster analysis of variables measuring undergraduates
considerations about the broad socio-professional qualities of a contemporary engineer.
BELARUS
Dendrogram using Complete Linkage
Rescaled Distance Cluster Combine
C AS E
Label
Num
IMECKN
IMCRAB
IMSOKNA
IMMOST
IMCUKN
IMFLKN
IMECOR
IMSOAC
IMPRKN
IMINAB
IMRESK
4
6
5
7
1
8
11
10
2
9
3
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
0
5
10
15
20
25
+...................+...................+...................+...................+...................+
ENGLAND
Dendrogram using Complete Linkage
Rescaled Distance Cluster Combine
C AS E
Label
Num
IMECKN
IMSOKN
MCUKN
IMMOST
IMCRAB
IMFLKN
MECOR
MSOAC
IMRESK
MINAB
IMPRKN
4
5
1
7
6
8
11
10
3
9
2
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
0
5
10
15
20
25
+...................+...................+...................+...................+...................+
Key:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
(IMCUKN)
(IMPRKN)
(IMRESK)
(IMECKN)
(IMSOKN)
(IMCRAB)
(IMMOST)
(IMFLKN)
(IMINAB)
(IMSOAC)
(IMECOR)