Les ingénieurs de Louvain à la Belle Epoque
(2012)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Dumoulin, Michel
- Abstract
- (en) Emblematic character of the society created by the industrial revolution, engineers remain largely unknown despite an interesting historiography. Since the 1970s, engineers have been the subject of extensive research and publications in the context of studies highlighting the genesis, the role and training of elites. In Belgium, however, it was not until the 1990s that more studies specifically dedicated to engineers were conducted. Despite the abundance of these works, many questions remain to be studied, for example, about the roles and functions of engineering, social mobility, the image of engineers in Belgian society and abroad ... Recently, new studies have shed new light on the engineer as an agent of innovation and his role in business decision making. This research intends to study engineers as a particular social and professional group basing on the specific case of engineers of Louvain in 1900. The first part of this study describes the environment in which engineers worked. Special schools were created in Louvain in 1864 in a context of intensive industrialization and expansion of Belgium. After studying the world of higher technical education in Belgium in the nineteenth century, we have wanted to describe the profile of engineering graduates at Louvain between 1898 and 1902. The second part of this thesis is devoted to the training of these young engineers. One chapter relates the story of Schools of Arts and Manufactures and Mines at Louvain between 1864 and 1902. Annexed to the Catholic University, this institution was in the middle of ideological conflicts between liberals and ultramontane Catholics, but also between ultramontane, liberal or social Catholics. In addition, this study tries to establish a profile of the students and the faculty, while seeking to measure their degree of international openness. The third part of the study attempts to shed light on the social networks and the ideology of the engineers of Louvain. To be particularly noticed, the Industrial Circle and the Union of Engineers out of special schools of Louvain from 1872 to 1902. In another chapter, we try to define the ideology of Louvain engineers through what academic authorities and engineers say about themselves. A final chapter follows the career of these engineers until after the Second World War, thus measuring their mobility and adaptability to the industrial and economic changes of the first half of the twentieth century.
- Affiliations
Citations
Blanchart, L. (2012). Les ingénieurs de Louvain à la Belle Epoque. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/46908