Authority, Profit and Participation

Abstract

So far we have been concerned with the social location of engineers rather than with their distinctive ideology. Much of the discussion could have been applied in a similar fashion to many ‘expert’ groups in modern society; for example, accountants or personnel managers. But, as we saw in Chapter 1, engineers raise special questions because of the potential conflict between their technical expertise and the profit-making aspects of capitalist enterprises. Juxtaposing the rationality of ‘science’ and ‘technology’ against the logic of profit maximisation raises the question of how technical staff can be ideologically integrated into the capitalist firm (Galbraith, 1967; Gorz, 1967; Gouldner, 1976; Mallet, 1975; Veblen, 1922).