https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2182-3228
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Abstract
This paper explores three different forms of negotiation implemented by environmentalist engineers between their professional work and their environmental activism. These engineers, members of environmentalist organizations, appropriate in different ways this conceptual professional boundary that separates and opposes the social worlds of engineering and activism. The article draws from narrative interviews with 50 environmentalist engineers that focused on the dynamics of these negotiations and their effects on biographical trajectories. The process of conforming, shifting or overstepping the boundary between profession and activism is linked to the framing of environmental causes. The precarious balances these engineers strike between work and activism thus depend on three factors: the emergence (or not) of a professional reflexivity, the adoption (or not) of a political interpretation and the reaction of hierarchical superiors and company management.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ivan Sainsaulieu and Jongheon Kim for their patience and their many helpful suggestions. I would also like to thank Jessica Smith and my reviewers for their invaluable advice, which helped me to improve my paper. I would like to thank Hadrien Coutant for our joint work and our many extremely valuable and stimulating discussions. Finally, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Christelle Didier for her unfailing support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
4 Carew, and Michell, “Characterizing Undergraduate Engineering Students”.
5 Huntzinger et al., “Enabling Sustainable Thinking”.
6 McLaughlan, “Instructional Strategies to Educate”.
7 Hojem and Lagesen, “Doing Environmental Concerns in Consulting Engineering”.
8 Date and Chandrasekharan, “Beyond Efficiency”.
9 Smith, Extracting Accountability.
10 Wisnioski, Engineers for Change.
11 Désir-Weber, Faire sauter la banque; Lefebvre, Lettre aux ingénieurs qui doutent.
12 Fillieule, “Propositions pour une analyse”.
13 Dubar, “Trajectoires sociales et formes identitaires,” 78.
14 Bertaux, Les récits de vie, 29.
15 McCarthy and Zald, “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements,” 1218.
16 Kozinets, Netnography.
17 Bourdieu, Le sens pratique, 88.
18 Mathieu, Comment lutter? 75–6.
19 Matonti and Poupeau, “Le capital militant”.
20 Sainsaulieu, Surdez, and Zufferey, “The Political Socialization of Engineers,” 445–6.
21 IESF, 27ème enquête nationale sur les ingénieurs.
22 Michon, “Les effets des contextes d’études sur la politisation”.
23 Vérin, “Autour du mot "ingénieur"”.
24 Latour, We Have Never Been Modern.
25 Downey, “PDS: Engineering as Problem Definition,” 59.
26 Vatin, “L’esprit d’ingénieur”.
27 Becker, Art Worlds.
28 Didier and Talin, “Attitudes et dynamiques environnementales des ingénieurs”.
29 McAdam, Freedom Summer.
30 Jasper, The Art of Moral Protest.
31 Becker, Outsiders.
32 French engineer who graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, co-founder of the think tank The Shift Project and activist for decarbonizing the economy.
33 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
34 International Energy Agency.
35 Walsh, “Resource Mobilization and Citizen”.
36 Traïni and Siméant, “Pourquoi et comment sensibiliser à la cause ?” 13.
37 Bouzin, “La mise en langage de l’écologie par les ingénieurs militants”.
38 Snow and Benford, “Ideology, Frame Resonance”.
39 The use of the term technocracy to refer to engineers and their responsibilities performed within public authorities or companies is also strongly derogatory, recalling the position of engineers as the historic adversary to environmental protest movements in France.
40 Mitcham, Steps toward a Philosophy of Engineering.
41 Comby, “Un éthos pondérateur,” 88; Berlan, Carbou, and Teulières, Greenwashing.
42 Shinn, “Des Corps de l’État au secteur industriel”.
43 Vérin, “Autour du mot "ingénieur"”.
44 Sainsaulieu, Vinck, and Zufferey, “L’ingénieur Manager”.
45 O’Rourke, Connelly, and Koshland. “Industrial Ecology,” 90.
46 Korhonen, “Four Ecosystem Principles for an Industrial Ecosystem”.
47 Miller, “Exploring Engineering and Sustainability”.
48 Vivien, Le développement soutenable.
49 Traïni, “Des dispositifs visant à la coordination des actions collectives,” 20.
50 French engineer who is a graduate of the École Centrale and has criticized the social and environmental impacts of technologies.
51 Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and co-president of group no.1 of the IPCC since 2015.
52 Hirsch, “Sacrifice for the Cause”.
53 Flocco, Des dominants très dominés.
54 Jarrige, Technocritiques.
55 Coutant, “Un capitalisme d’ingénieurs,” 86.
56 Coutant, “Devenir ingénieur écologiste”.
57 Bouffartigue, “Trajectoire d’entreprise et trajets biographiques,” 92.
58 Bouffartigue and Gadéa, “Les ingénieurs français,”319.
59 Coutant, “Lost in the Matrix”.
60 Désir-Weber, “De HSBC à Vous n’êtes pas seuls,” 156.
61 Négroni, “La reconversion professionnelle volontaire”.
62 Denave, Reconstruire sa vie professionnelle.
63 Elias, The Society of Individuals.
64 Pessis, Survivre et vivre.
65 Wisnioski, Engineers for Change.
66 Smith, Extracting Accountability.
67 The qualitative nature of my material makes it difficult to quantify my results and precisely apportion them between the three forms of negotiation identified. Nevertheless, the strategies of compliance and shifting the boundary are much more present in my interviews than the strategy of overstepping. In addition, during 2022–23, we conducted a quantitative survey with Hadrien Coutant (Costech laboratory, Centre de sociologie des organisations) on the politicization of environmentalist engineers. We obtained over 2,000 responses to our questionnaire from the professional community of French engineers. Processing these results will enable me to refine more precisely the dominant forms of negotiation that I have highlighted in this article.
68 Gadéa, Les cadres en France.
69 Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat, “The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes”.
70 Benford and Hunt, “Identity Talk in the Peace”.
71 Becker, Outsiders.
72 Smith, Extracting Accountability, 192.
73 Hughes, Men and their Work.
74 Bouzin, “À la recherche de l’« ingénierie durable »”.
75 Wisnioski, Inside “the System”.
76 Ollitrault, Militer pour la planète.
77 Mitcham, Steps Toward a Philosophy of Engineering, 2.
78 Ibid., 286.