Why There are No Engineering Ethics in France: A Historical Interpretation
Author(s):
Christelle Didier
Christelle Didier
Centre d'Ethique Contemporaine.
Universite Catholique de Lille
Presented at the OEC International Conference on Ethics in
Engineering and Computer Science, March 1999
Until recently, there has been no research programs, courses
in engineering ethics and no code of ethics for engineers in
France. For cultural and historical reason, the question of
being or not being a profession is not an issue in France.
Therefore, professional ethics have not been developed as in
English-speaking countries. If we consider that a code of
ethics is a relevant, if only partial means to study the
engineers ethos, where should we start our investigation on
French engineers ? An historical investigation shows that the
engineering profession did not succeed in organizing itself in
France. The scattering of the profession has led to the absence
of a discourse representative of French engineers. Even if
French engineers adopted through this professional association
their first code of ethics, more than in other countries, the
perception that engineers have of ethical issues within their
profession needs to be studied elsewhere.
Introduction
To talk about the development of engineering ethics in
France is almost an impossible task. Firstly, the academic
subject doesn't exist in any state university: philosophy
departments as well as the engineering departments take little
interest in it. Nevertheless, there are small groups of
teachers and researchers dealing with this issue in the
Catholic universities and in a few schools of engineering, but
they are a minority. Secondly, there is almost no ethical
education within engineering curricula. More and more time is
given to non-technical subjects, but rather to epistemology,
human sciences or art than to professional ethics. Thirdly,
there are almost no academic research programs on engineering
ethics although ethics - but not professional ethics - has been
a growing concern in France over the last few years. The first
French text-book on engineering ethics was published by the
Centre d' Ethique Contemporaine of the Catholic
University of Lille in 1998. One of its authors came in contact
with engineering ethics when taking some courses on Science,
Technology and Society MIT after his engineering education in
France.
The word ethics does not appear in any professional
organizations or trade-unionsí publications until the
90's. The UCC- CFDT (one of the most representative salaried
union among the engineers socio-professional group) recently
published a charter concerning the autonomy of engineers toward
managers (1992) and about the societal control of the new
information technology (1995). This union is a member of the
International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional
and Technical Employees (known by its French acronym FIET)
whose congress in 1995 dealt with the professional, social and
ethical responsibilities of its members. FIET worked together
with the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for
Global Responsibility (INES) in 1996 on a report called code of
ethical, social and professional responsibility. On 13 May
1997, the FIET-Committee for Professional and Managerial Staff
(P&MS) adopted its own code.
On the other hand, the National Council of Engineers and
Scientists of France (Conseil National des Ingeeieurs et
Scientifiques de France, CNISF), a federation of
engineering and scientific associations, that encompass most
alumni associations and scientific societies has recently
started taking an interest in ethics as well. CNISF adopted the
first French code of ethics for engineers in 1997.
French engineers are no less concerned than others by the
claim for autonomy so clearly brought to light by
whistleblowings (organizational disobedience in general), which
remains a major issue in engineering ethics in the
United-States. They might face in their career dilemmas between
their loyalty to their company and their responsibility toward
society as a whole. In Europe, Technology Assessment has been a
major issue for more than twenty years in Verein
Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI, German association of
engineers): shouldn't it concern French engineers as well as
the German ones ? Even if every nation has its own culture, its
own history and traditions, engineers are nonetheless facing
some common ethical issues on the micro-social level (what does
it mean to be an ethical engineer?) as well as on the
macro-social level (what is the specific responsibility of the
engineering profession toward society?) This is even more
relevant in our global world. Why are there so few books and
articles on these issues in France?
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Comparisons
USA
The first codes of ethics were adopted by engineering
professional associations in the USA at the beginning of the
20th century. Those documents do not give an exhaustive picture
of the ethical values shared by all the members of the
profession, but they do give a good idea of the main concerns
of engineers on that matter. These codes were developed within
the context of professionalization of American engineers. They
can be considered as a means of obtaining the social
recognition due to the Professions that John Ladd calls the
first secondary objective of codes . Another secondary
objective would be to protect the monopoly of the profession in
question. The last one would be, according to him to serve as a
status symbol.
Engineering ethics codes and discussions in American
engineering professional associations marked a turning point in
the 50's and 60's. Society had changed : technology was no
longer considered value-free, small could be beautiful as well,
engineers were invited to take into account their social
responsibility. Most codes before the 70's put more emphasis on
developing the prestige of the profession rather than
protecting the public. New topics appeared in the codes, such
as environmental issues. Engineers like Stephen Unger
contributed to make engineering ethic codes more meaningful. He
tried to make more explicit what should not be an ethics code
if its aim was to be thought of as a collective recognition of
the responsibilities of the individual practitioners .
Engineering education changed as well. Since the 80's,
multidisciplinary teams were created. Funds were raised to
develop engineering ethics research programs : philosophers and
engineers started to consider together the ethical issues of
engineering. Ethics in Engineering, published by a
philosopher (Martin) and an engineer (Schinzinger) and
Engineering Ethics, published by two engineers
(Harris and Rabins) and a philosopher (Pritchard) are two good
examples of what can come out of such collaborations.
Germany
Following WW II was a time of deep soul searching within
German society. The engineering profession which was accused of
cooperation with the Nazis during the second world war started
to think about the social and ethical responsibilities of
engineers. Engineering ethics research is more recent in
Germany than in the United-States, but it has already reached a
certain maturity. In 1947, the refunding of the German
Association of Engineers VDI was inaugurated by a conference
with the motto Technik als ethische und kulturelle
Aufgabe [Technology as an Ethical and Cultural Task]. A
deep interest has been developed by the whole of society for
environmental problems and for public debates on the social
impact of technology in the 70s. In this context, engineering
ethics as it was discussed by philosophers and engineers in VDI
has become part of Technology Assessment. This topic was even
introduced in Germany by VDI in 1970 during a conference on
Wirschaftliche und Gesellschaftliche Auswirkungen des
Technische Fortschritts [The Economic and Social
Consequences of Technical Progress]. The ten years work
(1970-1980) of the Philosophie und Technik [Philosophy
and Technics] sub-committee led to the writing of a guideline
for technology assessment policy that covers technical and
economic efficiency, public welfare, safety, health,
environmental quality, personal development, and quality of
life.
France
There is little which can be compared to the American codes
of ethics and the German guideline for Technology Assessment :
the first code of ethics adopted in 1997 by the CNISF or some
work on the social control of IT carried out by a trade-union.
This makes it difficult to know how the ethical issues of
engineering are considered within the profession. Since the
development of engineering ethics seems to be associated with
the history of the profession in the United-States, as well as
in Germany, perhaps some explanations for this absence of a
formalized engineering ethics in France will be found in the
history of the engineering profession.
The following section of this paper tries to find some
explanations for the scattering of the profession over the
two-centuries history of engineering education. But some other
clues can be found in the history of the profession itself.
Until now, French engineers (graduates as well as the others)
have never managed to organize themselves as a professional
group (rather than a profession , whose meaning in the USA is
different from in French). Even if the history of engineering
education and the history of engineering professional
associations are linked together, it would be better to
separate them in order to distinguish between the group of men
and women who work as engineers from the graduate engineers who
are only a part of this group. The graduates are indeed the
most easy to identify but since a lot of them turn to
management, they are not representative of the profession.
Another reason of this choice is to be found in the double
meaning of the word engineering profession in French. In
France, engineer is a title and a job. To be an engineer means
to exert a profession that requires a good level of
technical expertise. He or she differs from a lower technician
by his or her ability to discuss technology and methods being
used or argue about if need be. To be an engineer has a second
meaning : earning the engineering degree after a rather long
training period, with a curriculum that includes a balance of
scientific, technical and even economic studies.
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Characteristics
of Engineering Education in France
Engineering education is open in France to good or very good
students. According to Bouffartigues and Gadea, sociologists of
professions, France is the one country in the world where the
social status conferred to the engineer is the highest. The
title exerts a fascination on high school students. It evokes
the value of excellence, successfully passing a very selective
competitive examination (whereas there is no selection to enter
university), surviving a very tough two or three years spent in
preparatory classes with almost 40 hours of mathematics,
physics and chemistry a week. It evokes as well high social
standing. Indeed, some French engineers proceed up the career
ladder faster that do engineers in other countries, but this is
true only for the graduate from the best known schools. In any
case, the most prestigious and oldest schools of engineering
are still an unavoidable and deep symbolic reference for anyone
choosing this career.
Engineering education in France is two-centuries old. The
first engineering schools which were founded in the second part
of the eighteenth century had a strong influence on the
profession and on the engineering education. L'ecole des Ponts
et Chaussees (bridges and roads construction) is the oldest of
theses : founded in 1747, it was followed by the Ecole du Genie
de Mezieres (military engineering) in 1748 and l'ecole des
Mines (mining engineering) in 1783. The ones that have most
influenced the engineering educational system are L'ecole
Polytechnique, (founded in 1794 on year after the dissolution
of universities) on the symbolic level, and more concretely,
l'ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufacture founded in 1829. These
colleges with a formalized theoretical curriculum contributed
to the establishment of a high scientific and technical
education outside of faculties of sciences. Their status was
reinforced by the high position of their alumni who joined the
Civil service in the technical State Bodies, i.e. high
technical administrations (mainly graduates from Polytechnique
and also of one of the Schools of applied technologies, such as
the Mining Engineering School). On the other hand, many
graduates from l'Ecole Centrale became managers of big
corporations.
The creation of the Ecole Centrale in 1829, which is the
first school to give an education for civil engineers only was
followed by other small private institutions. Some were created
by industrial businessmen and scientists, like Centrale, many
were founded at the end of the 19th century within faculties of
sciences. After WWI, in the context of the economic crisis,
engineers graduated from the oldest institutions feared that
the increasing number of colleges giving an engineering diploma
would be prejudicial to the profession and to their privileges.
Some alumni associations gathered and formed the Federation of
Engineersí Associations and Unions (Federation des
Associations, Syndicats et Societes dí Ingenieurs,
FASSFI).
The 1934-Law to Protect the Title of Engineer
One of the first actions of the new born Federation was to
ask the government to promulgate a law to protect the title of
engineer. (only a few specific titles such as
Ingégnieur Agronome et Agricole or
Ingenieur des Travaux Public de l'Etat had already
been protected by law). After years of discussions, the law was
voted on July, 10, 1934. But only the title of graduate
engineer from a higher education college accredited by the
Committee for the Title of Engineer was protected, the title
engineer alone was not. This is still true today where almost
half of the people working as engineers in corporations are not
graduate engineers, but self-taught. The practice of an
engineering profession is neither controlled nor regulated by
French law.
The Committee that was created by the law of 1934 appears to
be the main basis of the French engineering education system.
Its role is to give accreditation to new private schools and to
make recommendations for an accreditation to the Ministry of
Education for the public ones. It also gives advice and
controls the quality of the curriculum by organizing regular
inquires. It is composed of two groups of 16 people: one from
the education world (school directors, teachers, scientists,
members of the Ministry of Education) and the other from the
professional world (8 representatives of the main employers
organizations and 8 from professional associations or unions).
The historian Ribeill made clear that during the first few
years, the aim was always to achieve an equal distribution of
seats between the most prestigious schools at the Committee.
This fact shows the importance that has always been placed on
the which school an engineer graduated from - more than the
area where he or she worked.
Consequences on Engineering Education in France Today
It is important to note that in France the engineering
degree given by 232 schools in 1998 is not a national degree
like the ones that the university gives. This system founded in
1934 a led to a reinforcement of the existing hierarchy in the
engineering schools. It also contributed to standardizing
engineering education. Today, the classical model includes two
stages: two years of preparatory classes after high school,
where students prepare for competitive examinations in order to
enter an engineering school; then three years of higher
technical education within these schools. The better known
schools follow this model. However over the last forty years
new engineering programs have been developed : some schools
recruit students after high school and offer a 5 year training
course ; others recruit two years after the end of high school
students who have already obtained a two-year academic degree
instead of being selected from a competitive examination.
The standardization of engineering education explains in
part why France is the one country were the distinction between
technicians and engineers is emphasized the most: the
engineering degree is at Baccalaureat plus five years.
Baccalaureat is the national examination taken at the
end of high school at the age of 17/18. It leads to entry into
higher education colleges. The short university-level technical
curricula lasts two years only and leads straight to
employment. There is a discussion between sociologists and
historians to find out if the emphasis placed on the classical
model has not been an obstacle for the engineering schools to
meeting the needs of the industrial world. Last but not least,
one of the consequences of the law is to reinforce the
organization (and the identity) through their alumni
associations rather than through their work. In France, a
graduate is from his or her school of engineering before being
a computer engineer or a chemical engineer.
In 1998, 232 accredited engineering schools gave an
engineering degree to more than 20,000 students. Most schools
are small colleges with less than 100 graduates a year, only
eight of them have more than 300-students per year (Centrale
and Polytechnique are among them). Almost 25 % of the students
study in a private college. Half of the schools follow the
classical model. Most public colleges are under the
responsibility of the Ministry of High Education. The others
are under the responsibility of other Ministries (Agriculture,
Industry, Telecommunication, etc.) especially those preparing
the former members of the technical State Bodies. Obviously the
protection of the title and the standardization tendency has
not lead to an homogenous engineering educational system.
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The Failure of Professionalization of French Engineers
Civil engineers versus civil servants: the Civil Engineer
Society (1849). In the process of professionalization, the
Association of German Engineers, VDI, looked for its social
recognition by demanding the possibility of having the
prestigious title of Doktor from German universities,
which they managed to obtain in 1899. American engineers looked
to their professional associations for the recognition due to
the professions. French civil engineers had first to fight the
corporative tendency of state engineers, who benefited from the
recognition of the public and the protected status of civil
servants.
A clarification may be needed here: a civil engineer in
France does not mean an engineer doing civil works and not a
mere non-military engineer. A civil engineer is an engineer who
is not a civil servant and works in a private corporation where
he or she can do civil works as well as mechanics, electronics,
etc. This expression was at the center of the fight between
civil engineers and the members of the technical State Bodies,
but is not commonly used any more. At that time, civil
engineers chose this name because of the fierce competition
with the state engineers for civil works. Civil engineers
reproached sate engineers for holding on to their
administrative tasks while at the same time obtaining contract
work from private corporations. They considered that the state
engineers were abusing their position in order to prejudice any
projects that did not come from one of their peers, and in
general to damage the reputation of civil engineers.
In the process of the creation of l'Ecole Centrale in 1829,
and in a more liberal political context, some alumni created
the Civil Engineers Society (Société des
Ingénieurs Civils, SIC). Another explanation of
the French use of civil engineer, given by Jacomy may be found
in the influence of the English Institution of Civil Engineers,
created in 1818, that was used as a model for the founders of
the French Civil Engineer Society. The aim of this society,
which is the oldest in France and has been the only one for a
long time, was to increase the prestige of the industry, and to
define more precisely the role of engineers in industrial
development. The first members were only alumni from l'Ecole
Centrale, but the Society soon opened its membership to
self-educated engineers and graduates from schools other than
l'ecole Centrale; only state engineers were not accepted.
The scattering of the engineering colleges and the
difficulty that the Civil Engineers Society had in defining its
mission and in representing the concrete interests of the civil
engineers explain partially why the alumni associations took
control of it, especially alumni from the oldest schools. Each
school through its alumni association tried to have its own
title protected by law. The rivalries between the schools were
reinforced. As a consequence, engineers did not pay much
attention to the ethical issues of their profession as was the
case in American professional engineers associations. Firstly,
because it would not contribute to increasing their prestige,
as it did for American engineers; secondly, because they were
more preoccupied with the legal issue of protection of their
title.
A Profession Divided into Many Groups
At the beginning of the century, in order to meet the needs
of the industrial world, many new higher education colleges
were opened, particularly in the field of chemistry and
electricity. While the number of graduate engineers grew, the
profession started to organize itself outside the alumni
groups. The Civil Engineer Society that had little influence at
first, in comparison with the alumni associations, reached a
total of 6,000 members in 1914. (In 1892, it had 1,500 member
in a time where 3,500 civil engineers had graduated from
Centrale and there was 8,000 state engineers.) But the
activities of SIC remained limited to those of a scientific
associations, avoiding political commitment.
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Catholic Engineers and the
Social Teaching of the Church
In 1891, Pope Leon XIII published an encyclical called
Rerum Novarum where the Social Teaching of the
Church was developed for the first time. In order to make it
known, a Jesuit father founded the Catholic Union of Engineers
(Union des Ingenieurs Catholiques, UIC). In 1902, it
was transformed into a professional trade-union for graduates
from l'Ecole Centrale. In 1905, it opened its doors to all
graduate engineers, state engineers as well as civil engineers
and became the Social Union of Catholic Engineers (Union
Sociale des Ingenieurs Catholiques, USIC). Two years
later, when self-educated engineers were allowed to join, USIC
became the first movement that gathered all sorts of engineers,
(employers and employees, graduates and self-educated, state
and civil engineers), but they had to be good Catholics. In ten
years time, it became an active engineering trade-union whose
influence spread beyond the catholic world where it was born.
From 500 members in 1900, the union had almost 10 000 members
in 1939.
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The First Engineers
Trade-Unions
After the legalization of professional organizations in
1884, the first French worker trade-union, the General Labor
Confederation (Confederation Generale du Travail, CGT)
was founded in 1895. Engineers unions appeared a few decades
later. The first of them were affiliated to industrial
sections: the Trade-Union for Electricity Engineers in 1918,
the Trade-Union for the Steel Industry, Mechanics and Public
Works Engineers, and the Trade-Union for Chemistry Engineers,
both in 1919. They gathered to form the French Engineers
Trade-Union (Union Syndicale des Ingenieurs Francais,
USIF). The Engineers Trade-Union contributed to creating the
Intellectual Labor Confederation that was linked to the left
wing party. The Intellectual Labor Confederation obtained a
representative seat on the National Economic Council. The
French Engineers Trade-Union had 4 000 members from 1920 to
1936. Engineers who were employers could be members but they
were not allowed in the board of directors. Most members
considered that an employer could not represent the interests
of the salaried engineers who were in majority.
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The 1934-Law: a
Common Goal for the Profession?
The period between the two World Wars was very important for
the profession: the Civil Engineer Society, the Social Union of
Catholic Engineers, alumni associations of some prestigious
engineering schools gathered to create in 1929 the Federation
of Engineers Associations and Societies (FASFI). One of the
most common goals of these organizations was to protect the
title of engineer. A few engineers trade-unions joined the
Federation later. The French Engineers Trade-Union (USIF),
created in 1920, did not, but was involved in discussions with
the Government. Another goal of the Federation was to obtain a
seat in the National Economic Council as did the Intellectual
Labor Confederation. Discussions between the Federation of
Engineers Associations and the French Engineers Trade-Union
with the government lasted 12 years before the law of 1934 was
passed.
The common interest in protecting the title cannot hide the
deep-seated tension between the different tendencies among the
engineers associations and within each of them. The question of
defining what an engineer really was continued to be an issue
for the profession: can a state engineer be considered as a
real engineer? and an employer? and what about a self-educated
engineer? The law of 1934 did not provide answers to these
questions. It did not clarify what an engineer was since the
title engineer on its own was still not protected. The law
protected only the title of graduate engineer and made it
compulsory to add to the title the name of the accredited
engineering school where the engineer had graduated.
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The Middle-Class
Movement and the Invention of a New Socio-Professional Group:
the Executives
Emergence of a Salaried Consciousness Among Engineers
While engineers were fighting for their recognition, the
consequences of the economic situation led to an increasing
number of strikes in France. In 1934, socialists and communists
became allied. The movement that they formed in 1935 obtained
the majority of seats in Parliament in 1936. In order to put an
end to the strikes, President Leon Blum organized discussions
between the workers trade-unions and the employers which proved
successful.
The engineers felt excluded from the debate between blue
collar workers and the managers. They realized more than ever
the increasing distance between them and their employers. They
wanted their interests to be taken into account, but were
afraid of being assimilated into the workers' larger group.
However, more and more engineers joined the workers
trade-unions : CGT or the French Confederation of Catholic
Workers (Confederation Francais des Travailleurs
Catholiques, CFTC, created in 1919). From 1936 to 1938,
many non-affiliated small unions of engineers signed collective
contracts with their industrial sections. When engineers joined
unions, their aim was to reinforce the specific status of the
high-level employees who started to organize themselves as a
new social group after the economic crisis of the 30s. At
first, this new group was mostly composed of engineers,
nowadays only 20 % of them are engineers. But among their
trade-unions, engineers are still the more active.
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Counter-Reaction of Employers
Employers reacted to the unionization of engineers in
traditional labor unions by promoting unions of engineers only:
the French Engineers Trade-Union and two other ones, both
created in 1936. The first one was founded by the Social Union
of Catholic Engineers, the other one by the Federation of
Graduate Engineers Associations. The three unions merged into
one in 1937: the National Federation of Engineers Unions.
During WW II, this Federation has been attracted by the
pro-German government's support to the professional
corporations. This Government created the Order for the Medical
Doctors which still organizes and controls the profession
today. Some engineers dreamt of a similar Order for the
engineering profession but it did not happen because of their
difficulty in finding a unanimous definition for the term
engineer.
At the end of WW II, engineers and other high-level
employees who were affiliated to workers unions and those who
were members of the National Federation of Engineers Unions
looked for a common base, but they failed. The non-affiliated
engineers of the national Federation associated to other high
level employees created their own confederation: the General
Confederation of Executives (Confederation Generale des
Cadres, CGC): this is a very specific aspect of French
unionization. The CGC has been the most representative union
among engineers for some times also more recently labor unions
have attracted engineers by creating sub-committees for
engineers and management staff.
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Engineers Associations and Unions Today and
What they Say About Ethics
From the Civil Engineers Society (CIS) to the National
Council of French Scientists and Engineers (CNISF)
A single professional association since 1992. For the first
time in 1992, scientific societies and alumni associations that
had always remained separate merged into a single association.
The CNISF is a combination of three groups : the Society of
Engineers and Scientists (ex Civil Engineers Society created in
1848), the Federation of Graduate Engineers Associations (ex
Federation of Engineers Associations and Trade-Unions, created
in 1929) and the National Council of French Engineers created
in 1957.
The Civil Engineers Society had become the Society of
Engineers and Scientists after the merging in 1978 with the
Union of Scientific and Industrial Societies, (Union des
Associations Scientifiques et Industrielles, UASIF), a
post-war creation of the Civil Engineers Society. It is
interesting to note that the new Society of Engineers and
Scientists started to accept state engineers, as well as
institutional members (whereas there had only been individual
memberships before). The fight between civil engineers and
state engineers was no longer an issue after WW II. Since 1957,
the Federation of Graduate Engineers Associations and Societies
had federated the alumni associations of most school of
engineering in order to represent the graduates only (the
engineersí trade-unions and the Social Union of Catholic
Engineers had left in 1936 for that reason). The National
Council of French Engineers had been created in 1957 in order
to coordinate the scientific societies, the alumni associations
and the Civil Engineers Society. The National Council of
Engineers and Scientists created in 1992 became the sole
representative of the engineers and scientists in France. In
1997, It was made up of 180 national associations, has 160 000
members, and represents 450 000 engineers and high-level
technicians.
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The
First French Code of Engineering Ethics
After ten years work that had started in 1987, CNISF
produced a code of ethics for engineers. This code - the first
one ever written in France - was considered by Jean Perrin,
Vice-President of CNISF, as a step towards a Code of deontology
whose violation ought to be sanctioned. This code is an
adaptation of the Code of professional duties adopted a few
years earlier by the European Federation of National
Engineering Associations (Federation Europeenne des
Associations Nationales d ingenieurs, FEANI). The FEANI
code had been written by a French team of engineers who had
studied some codes adopted in English speaking countries:
Australia, United-States and Canada).
Apart from an analysis of the content of this code that is
still to be done, a quick look at the institutional environment
of the code reveals some of its weaknesses. First, there are
neither sanctions nor enforcement procedures. Second, in the
membership structure of CNISF, institutional membership is the
rule most members are not direct members but through their
alumni association, which has a group membership. How did
engineers take part in the writing of the code ? To whom can
they propose amendments ? How do CNISF active members make the
code known to the professionals ? What do they expect from it ?
These questions still need to be answered. For the time being,
the National Council of Engineers and Scientists of France is
creating an official register of all French engineers, each of
them being supposed to accept and respect the code of ethics.
But it seems, when looking at the membership structure, that
the impact of the code will depend mainly on the alumni
interest in it.
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The
Catholic Engineers
From The Social Union of Catholic Engineers (USIC) to the
Christian Movement of Engineers, High-Level Employees and
Managers (MCC).
The Social Union of Catholic Engineers carried on its social
mission but its status has changed over time. It had
contributed towards the creation of the Federation of Engineers
Associations in 1929, but, the Federation controlled by the
alumni associations tended to defend the graduate engineers
only. The Social Union of Catholic Engineers which has always
wanted to represent the interests of self-educated engineers as
well as graduates (even if 50% of its members came from the
best-known schools) left the Federation in 1936. On the other
hand, until 1928, the board of directors of the Social Union
was composed of non-salaried engineers only. Confronted with
the growing number of salaried engineers among its members, the
Social Union created in 1936 a trade-union for salaried
engineers. Most of the members of this union joined the General
Confederation of Executives (CGC) created just after WW II.
In 1964, the Social Union of Catholic Engineers and another
Catholic movement of engineers and managers (created by the
Catholic Church in 1937) merged into a single one called
Movement of Christian Engineers, Executives and Managers
(Mouvement des Cadres Chretiens, MCC). Neither a
trade-union nor a professional organization, MCC is meant to be
a spiritual movement of people having a high level of
responsibility in corporations and who wants to live their
Christian faith within their work.
Engineers Ethics and the Social Teaching of the Catholic
Church.
Many ethical issues had been developed within the Social
Union before 1964, such as workers' dignity (1949), the
engineer's freedom (1951), social responsibility of executives
and management staff (1953) and the building of a more human
future (1962). They have been carried out by MCC, but this new
movement has become more oriented towards spirituality and
personal commitment than towards social issues. The Catholics
who were more interested in social issues than in deepening
their faith left the movement to join trade-unions. Nowadays
MCC has 10 000 members. Half of the male members are graduate
engineers from the best known engineering schools. They are
organized into small groups who meet very regularly to talk
about the spiritual questions raised by their professional
responsibilities in their corporation. Some issues - sometime
including common engineering ethics issues - are discussed on a
national level and in the Movement's newsletter,
Responsable.
For 20 years, from 1958 to 1978, a Jesuit father called Jean
Mousse was the national chaplain of USIC and then of MCC from
1964 on. He has taught for years business ethics in schools of
management and he published some of the few French books on
professional ethics in the 80's. He also took part in the first
works on professional ethics within the Catholic University of
Lille before the Ethics Center was born in 1991.
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Engineers within Trade-Unions
Engineers in Unions in the 90's
In France engineers who are unionized nowadays are a very
small minority and they are divided into two groups whose
cultures are very different. On the one hand, there is a
corporatist culture which is best expressed in the CGC
(Confederation of Executives) created after WW II, which as
always avoided political debates : its publications show little
if any interest for ethical issues within the professional
activities of its members.
On the other hand, there is an ideological culture. It is
found among engineers who are unionized in workers
trade-unions. But there again, there are divisions between
different groups. There were two workers trade-union before WWI
: the anti-clerical one (CGT created in 1895, eleven years
after the legalization of trade-unions) and the Catholic one
(CFTC, created in 1919, 27 years after Rerum
Novarum that allowed the unionization of Catholic
workers). Today there are four worker unions : the Catholic
Workers Confederation, the Democratic Labor Confederation
(continuation of the Catholic Workers Confederation from 1964
on, when members didn't have to be Catholic anymore), the
General Labor Confederation (CGT) and Workers' Strength
(Force Ouvriere, FO, which separated from CGT in
1947).
Each of them welcomes engineers sometimes in a separate
sub-committee within the confederation, for example in General
Union of Engineers and Technicians (UGICT) within the CGT.
These sub-committees are more concerned by the status and
specific interests of engineers and the management staff, like
the Confederation of Executives. But because of their position
within a larger workersí union, they also work on
questions that concern other groups than their own. On the
other hand, workers and engineers who are members of the
Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT) are grouped together in
their local committees. They put more emphasis on the common
interests of engineers and the other employees. In this
confederation, the sub-committee for engineers, called UCC-CFDT
is more reflection-oriented than action-oriented and has a main
influence on the whole Democratic Labor Union.
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Ethics and
Technology Assessment: the Case of UCC-CFDT
Guy Groux has led an inquiry on the role and importance of
engineers within the Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT).
According to him the engineers' place and status in the
division-of-labour hierarchy transformed their relationship
towards trade-unionism. It also led to new trade union policies
on technological innovation in industry at least within the
Democratic Labor Confederation, through its engineers within
their sub-committee. Until the 80's, trade-unions were not used
to negociating the technical choices with the bosses, but only
their consequences. In 1979, UCC-CFDT made nine proposals
concerning computer investments. After the 1981 election of
Francois Mitterand, some of them were chosen as a basis for a
new series of law on the technical change in corporations and
on the salaried participation to the choice of new
technologies.
In the other hand, UCC adopted in 1992 a charter concerning
the autonomy of engineers towards their employers. The union
considered that the engineers should be able to refuse for
conscious reasons or inform where need be if dangerous actions
were taken, especially those that do not respect the
environment or public security. The text also states that the
human dimension as well as ethical aspects should be integrated
into the search for solutions so as to improve the social work
relationship and the salaried participation.
More recently, in 1995, UCC wrote a report on the
information technology. A systemic analysis covered nine
issues: technical, industrial, economic, political and
military, social, cultural, legal and moral, ecological and
medical and European. The description was followed by 20
concrete proposals. In 1996, after the publication of a Green
book by The European Union called : live and work in an
information society : priority to the human dimension , the UCC
sent to the European Commission its commentaries, included
where it agreed or disagreed and some of the 20 proposals as a
conclusion. Even if the word ethics did not appear, there seem
to be some common insights with the Associations of German
Engineers VDI to face macro-level engineering ethic issues.
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Conclusion
An historical investigation of the engineering profession in
France shows that the definition of engineers has been an issue
for two centuries. Civil servants working for the technical
State Bodies slowed down the recognition of civil engineers ;
graduates from the best-known schools who gathered to protect
their title, were opposed to self-educated engineers and even
to engineers who came from new kinds of schools ; the salaried
consciousness born between the two wars divided salaried
engineers and employers. Each group that has tried to represent
the profession has chosen its own definition of engineer and
excluded from membership those who didnít fit into it.
The 1934-law put an emphasis on the title and reinforced the
hierarchy between French engineering schools. The Committee for
the Title of Engineer, created in 1934, has become the main
place for discussions towards a definition of an engineer . But
since the Committee was in charge of controlling the quality of
the engineering curriculum, the issue was defining the graduate
engineer, i.e. the required curriculum to become an engineer
is. The question of the engineer's rights and duties was not at
stake.
The history of the various engineersí associations
provides a starting point when searching for the French
engineers' ethos. Although there has been for a few years a
formalized code of ethics adopted by one of them (CNISF), it
seems that French engineers have developed other ways to face
ethical issues within their profession than adopting a code of
ethics. The existence of this code and the absence of
engineering ethics as an academic subject in France should not
prevent us from looking at other ways of expressing and
discussing ethics among the professionals. The reflections that
have taken place since the beginning of the 20th century among
the catholic engineers on their social responsibilities is one
example. The discussions and proposals on Technology Assessment
done by the Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT) another. This
historical investigation is the starting point of a work which
should be more sociological and whose aim could be to built a
typology of French engineers ethos.