ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

“It is not necessary to emphasize the general interest in these works”: Italian Civil Engineers and the Discourse about their Professional Role (1950-1980)

• In Event: Technical Professions and the Making of Middle Classes: Transnational Perspectives from the 19th to the 20th Century

English Abstract

Between the 1950s and 1970s, Italian civil engineers engaged in a profound reflection on their role within society. In professional journals such as Il Giornale degli Ingegneri, Genio Civile, and L’Energia Elettrica, as well as in the proceedings of national and international conferences and other publications, a crisis of professional identity has arisen, concerning the engineer as the sole and most suitable agent of development. Their active involvement in political decision-making was increasingly questioned, while debates emerged over whether engineers should accept criticism from non-expert sectors of society and address the unintended consequences of their own works, such as social oppression and ecological disasters. This tension reflected broader anxieties about technological authority and accountability in a rapidly changing world.
This paper situates the recent international historiographical discussion about the figure of the engineer in the contemporary era: from its consolidation as a technoscientific arm of the State throughout the nineteenth century to its involvement in developmental policies during the Cold War decades. It aims to reconstruct the internal dialogue within the profession during a phase marked by the democratisation of access to engineering careers and the diversification of expertise. Drawing on the voices of leading authors as expressed in their own publications, the study explores how engineers defended their works, criticized previous policies and results, and negotiated their identity amidst growing social scrutiny and concerns. Finally, it highlights both the discomfort and the gradual convergence of discourses on public works, particularly energy infrastructures, with the emerging priorities of international and local conservationist movements.

Author

• Francesco D'Amaro, Autonomous University of Madrid