Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Engineering-Business Nexus pp 39–59Cite as

Prisoners of the Capitalist Machine: Captivity and the Corporate Engineer

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Philosophy of Engineering and Technology ((POET,volume 32))

Abstract

This chapter will focus on how engineering practice is conditioned by an economic system which promotes production for profit and economic growth as an end in itself. As such it will focus on the notion of the captivity of engineering which emanates from features of the economic system. By drawing on Critical Realism and a Marxist literature, and by focusing on the issues of safety and sustainability (in particular the issue of climate change), it will examine the extent to which disasters and workplace accidents result from the economic imperative for profitable production and how efforts by engineers to address climate change are undermined by an on-going commitment to growth. It will conclude by arguing that the structural constraints on engineering practice require new approaches to teaching engineers about ethics and social responsibility. It will argue that Critical Realism offers a framework for the teaching of engineering ethics which would pay proper attention to the structural context of engineers work without eliminating the possibility of engineers working for radical change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    My title is inspired by Mike Davis’s study of the American working class, Prisoners of the American Dream, London and New York: Verso, 1986.

  2. 2.

    Broadly managers can be seen as those with delegated power to control and coordinate the diverse functions of corporations with the aim of meeting the corporation’s goals. While some are also owners, in that they may hold substantial shares in the corporations in which they manage, many do not. Over time and as corporations have become larger and more complex the management function has become more differentiated (Thompson and Mc Hugh 2002). Engineers are a diverse group of technical professionals. While most are salaried employees many are also members of management. Engineers perform diverse functions within corporations. National variations in the processes for reproducing engineering work and engineers has led Meiksins and Smith (1996) to conclude it may be “impossible to develop a definition of what an engineer is, or where the boundaries of engineering lie, which would apply to all industrial capitalist societies” (p. 3). While acknowledging this diversity the focus of this chapter is on the overarching features of capitalist economies and how they impact the work of engineers. While the main focus is on corporations who seek to make profits the analysis has implications for the engineering profession as a whole.

  3. 3.

    In an interesting contribution to the engineering ethics literature Bowen (2014) also highlights the importance of the trade union context in supporting the development of the Plan.

  4. 4.

    A recent systematic review, covering 21 journals in engineering educations and ethics, examining the relationship between risk management and ethics found that analysis of risk and safety is often devoid of complexity and context. It suggests that risk management is mostly used as an anecdote or an example when addressing ethics issues in engineering education. Further, it is perceived as an ethical duty or requirement, achieved through rational and technical methods. Only a small number of publications offer critical analyses of ethics education in engineering (Guntzburger et al. 2016).

  5. 5.

    This should caution us against simply blaming consumers in the developed world for the growth in emissions. Indeed, it is often workers in the richer countries who are the most vigorous opponents of offshoring jobs to havens of cheap labor (and high emissions). It should also make us sceptical about corporate claims to be going green.

  6. 6.

    See Malm (2016, Chap. 15) for an excellent analysis. He highlights the manner in which the transition is fettered by capitalist relations of production and the withdrawal from investment in wind and solar by major corporations due to low levels of profitability: “capital did not engage in the transition as many had expects it would, largely because energy from the flow (wind and solar) lost so much of its exchange-value at the very same time that its social use-value –slowing down climate change- rose towards priceless heights” (p. 371 emphasis in original).

References

  • Agapiou, A. (2005). Whistle-blowing protection provisions for construction industry employees. Construction Information Quarterly, 7(4), 135–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, K. (2013). Avoiding dangerous climate change demands de-growth strategies from wealthier nations. Available at: http://kevinanderson.info/blog. Accessed 01-06-16.

  • Anderson, K., & Bows-Larkin, A. (2010). Beyond ‘Dangerous’ climate change: Emission scenarios for a New World. Philosphical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 369, 20–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, K., Boyett, J., et al. (2010). Understanding engineering work and identity: A cross-case analysis of engineers within six firms. Engineering Studies, 2(3), 153–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, M. (1995). Realist social theory. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beder, S. (1998). The new engineer. Sydney: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benton, T., & Craib, I. (2011). Philosophy of social science (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, W. R. (2014). Engineering ethics: Challenges and opportunities. London: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Braverman, H. (1974). Labour and monopoly capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, R. K. (1998). The employment relationship in sociological theory. In D. Gaille (Ed.), Employment in Britain. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burkett, P. (2005). Marx’s vision of sustainable human development. Monthly Review, 57(5), 34–62 Available at: http://monthlyreview.org/2005/10/01. Accessed 01-02-15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burowoy, M. (1985). The politics of production. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carchedi, G. (1977). On the economic identification of social classes. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, B., & New, C. (2004). Making realism work. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coeckelbergh, M. (2006). Regulation or responsibility? Autonomy, moral imagination and engineering. Science, Technology & Human Values, 31(3), 237–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collier, A. (1994). Critical realism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conlon, E. (2008). The new engineer: Between employability and social responsibility. European Journal of Engineering Education, 33(2), 151–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conlon, E. (2013). Broadening engineering education: Bringing the community in. Science and Engineering Ethics, 19(4), 1589–1594.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conlon, E. (2015). A critical realist approach to engineering ethics. IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS). Dublin, November 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conlon, E., & Zandvoort, H. (2010). Broadening ethics teaching in engineering: Beyond the individualistic approach. Science and Engineering Ethics, 17(2), 217–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooley, M. (1978). Design, technology and production for social needs. In K. Coates (Ed.), The right to useful work. Nottingham: Spokesman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craib, I. (1992). Modern social theory (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danermark, B., Ekström, M., Liselotte Jakobsen, L., & Karlsson, J. C. (2002). Explaining society. Critical realism in the social sciences. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. (2012). “Ain’t no one here but us social forces”: Constructing the professional responsibility of engineers. Science and Engineering Ethics, 18(1), 13–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De George, R. T. (1981). Ethical responsibilities of engineers in large organizations: The Pinto case. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 1(1), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dien, Y., Llory, M., & Montmayeul, R. (2004). Organisational accidents investigation methodology and lessons learned. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 111(1–3), 147–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, P. (1986). Conflict at work. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Ireland’s greenhouse gas emission projections 2012–2030. Dublin: EPA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, J. B. (2011). Capitalism and degrowth: An impossibility theorem. Monthly Review, 62(8), 26–33 Available at: http://monthlyreview.org/2011/01/01. Accessed 05-04-2016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, J. B., Clark, B., & York, R. (2010). Capitalism and the curse of energy efficiency: The return of Jevons paradox. Monthly Review, 62 (6). Available at: http://monthlyreview.org/2010/11/01. Accessed 05-04-2016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, A. L. (1977). Industry and labour. Basingtonstoke: Lacmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goldman, S. L. (1991). The social captivity of engineering. In P. T. Durbin (Ed.), Critical perspectives on non-academic science and engineering. Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guntzburger, Y., Thierry, C., Pauchant, T. C., & Tanguy, P. A. (2016). Ethical risk management education in engineering: A systematic review. Science and Engineering Ethics. First Online. Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11948-016-9777-y. Accessed 01-05-2016.

  • Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neo-liberalism. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helm, D., Smale, R., & Phillips, J. (2007). Too good to be true? The UK’s climate change record. Available at: http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/publications/Carbon_record_2007.pdf. Accessed 01-06-2015.

  • Hodson, R. (2001). Dignity at work. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, J. E. (2001). The status of engineering in the age of technology. International Journal of Engineering Education, 17(6), 496–501.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huesemann, M. H. (2003). The limits of technological solutions to sustainable development. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 5, 21–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, R. (1987). Strategy or structure: Capital, labour and control. Work, Employment and Society, 1(1), 25–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, R. (2006). Marxist thought and the analysis of work. In M. Korczynski, R. Hodson, & P. Edwards (Eds.), Social theory at work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC. (2014). Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Geneva: IPCC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamison, A. (2013). The making of green engineers. San Rafael: Morgan and Claypool.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. G., & Wetmore, J. M. (2007). STS and ethics: Implications for engineering ethics. The handbook of science and technology studies. MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jowitt, P. (2010). Engineering, innovation, social and economic development. In Engineering: Issues, challenges and opportunities for development. UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karwat, D. M. A., Eagle, W. E., Wooldridge, M. S., & Princent, T. E. (2015). Activist engineering: Changing engineering practice by deploying practice. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(1), 227–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything: Capitalism vs the climate. London: Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korczynski, M., Hodson, R., & Edwards, P. (2006). Introduction to Social theory at work. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotta, L. (2011). Engineering education, practice and engineering research: Critical realist insights. Proceedings of the AAEE Conference, 5(2011), 19–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, G. L., & Smith, C. (1992). Engineers and management. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, M. (2008). Climate change, limits to growth, and the imperative for socialism. Monthly Review, 60 (3). Available at: http://monthlyreview.org/2008/07/01. Accessed 05-04-2016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucena, J., Schneider, J., & Leydens, J. A. (2010). Engineering and sustainable community development. San Rafael: Morgan and Claypool.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, W. (2015). Second guessing scientist and engineers: Post hoc criticism and the reform of practice in green engineering. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(5), 1217–1240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, W. T., & Kline, R. (2000). Engineering practice and engineering ethics. Science, Technology & Human Values, 25(2), 195–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacKenzie, D. (1996). Knowing machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magdoff, F., & Foster, J. B. (2011). What every environmentalist needs to know about capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malm, A. (2016). Fossil capital. London/New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1954). The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Moscow: Foreign Languages Pub. House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meiksins, P., & Smith, C. (1996). Engineering labour. London/New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitcham, C., & Nan, W. (2015). From engineering ethics to engineering politics. In S. H. Christensen, C. Didier, A. Jamison, M. Meganck, C. Mitcham, & B. Newberry (Eds.), Engineering identities, epistemologies and values, engineering education and practice in context (Vol. 2). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, G. (1997). Images of organisations. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, T. (1997). The sociology of industrial injury. London: Mansell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble, D. (1977). America by design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pacala, S. (2007). Equitable solutions to greenhouse warming: On the distribution of wealth, emissions and responsibility within emissions and responsibility within and between nations. Lecture to International Institute for Applied Sytem Analysis, November 2007. Available at: http://www.precaution.org/lib/pacala_wealth_and_gw.090601.pdf. Accessed 01-06-2015.

  • Pearce, F., & Tombs, S. (1998). Toxic capitalism. Dartmouth: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pidgeon, N. (1992). The psychology of risk. In D. Blockley (Ed.), Engineering safety. Maidenhead: Mc Graw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porpora, D. V. (1998). Four conceptions of social structure. In M. Archer, R. Bhasker, et al. (Eds.), Critical realism: Essential readings. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, M. (2005). The agency/structure dilemma in organization theory: Open doors and brick walls. In C. Knudsen & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organization theory. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saikku, L., Rautiainen, A., & Kauppi, P. E. (2008). The sustainability challenge of meeting carbon dioxide targets in Europe by 2020. Energy Policy, 36(2), 730–742.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, D. (2000). Realism and educational research: New perspectives and possibilities. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seiklova, F., Kallis, G., et al. (2013). Degrowth: From theory to practice. Journal of Cleaner Production, 38, 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. (1987). Technical workers, class, labour and trade unionism. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C., & Meiksins, P. (1995). System, society and dominance effects in cross-national organisational analysis. Work, Employment and Society, 9(2), 241–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swierstra, T., & Jelsma, J. (2006). Responsibility without moralism in technoscientific design practice. Science, Technology & Human Values, 31(3), 309–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, T., & Mc Hugh, D. (2002). Work organisations (3rd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tombs, S. (2007/8). A political economy of corporate killing. Criminal Justice Matters, 70(1), 29–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tombs, S. (2010). Corporate violence. In F. Brookman, H. Pierpoint, T. Bennett, & M. Maguire (Eds.), Handbook on crime (pp. 884–903). Cullompton: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyndall Centre. (2014). CO2 emissions set to reach new 40 billion tonne record high in 2014. Available at: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/communication/news-archive/2014. Accessed 01-06-2015.

  • Whalley, P. (1986). The social production of technical work. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Winner, L. (1990). Engineering ethics and political imagination. In P. Durbin (Ed.), Broad and narrow interpretations of philosophy of technology: Philosophy and technology (Vol. 7). Boston: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodhouse, E. J. (2001). Curbing overconsumption: Challenge for ethically responsible engineering. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Fall 2001, 23–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, E. O. (1979). Class, crises and the state. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • York, R. (2012). Do alternative energy sources displace fossil fuels? Nature Climate Change, 2, 441–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zandvoort, H. (2005). Good engineers need good laws. European Journal of Engineering Education, 30(1), 21–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zussman, R. (1985). Mechanics of the middle class. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering and Built Environment, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland

    Eddie Conlon

Authors
  1. Eddie Conlon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eddie Conlon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Development & Planning, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Steen Hyldgaard Christensen

  2. Département Mesures Physiques, Université de Lille – IUT « A » de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France

    Bernard Delahousse

  3. Département des sciences de l’éducation, UFR DECCID, Université de Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France

    Christelle Didier

  4. Faculty of Engineering Technology, Technologiecampus Gent, KU Leuven, Gent, Belgium

    Martin Meganck

  5. Academic Affairs, Digital & Learning Transformation, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Mike Murphy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Conlon, E. (2019). Prisoners of the Capitalist Machine: Captivity and the Corporate Engineer. In: Christensen, S.H., Delahousse, B., Didier, C., Meganck, M., Murphy, M. (eds) The Engineering-Business Nexus. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99636-3_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99636-3_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99635-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99636-3

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation