scholarly journals Canadian Civil Engineers Pre-1850: Professionals Before Professionalization

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
Richard White
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Public Works ◽  
The Other ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Civil Engineers

Abstract This article argues for a thorough re-thinking of the origins of the civil engineering profession in Canada. Working from a variety of sources, the richest being the public works papers in the National Archives of Canada, the author has assembled a list of forty-three men who practised as civil engineers in Canada before the railway boom of the 1850s and for whom biographical details are known. They are overwhelmingly men of the upper middle class who received good academic educations before their professional apprenticeships in engineering. Almost none were tradesmen. The civil engineering profession thus appears of much higher status, and much closer to the other traditional gentlemanly professions of the early nineteenth century, than others have recognized. The author goes on to explore to what extent this first generation of civil engineers might be considered true professionals, and what their existence suggests about the society in which they lived and practised.

Manpower Needs for the Public Works Programs of the Julio-Claudian Emperors

1983 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. Thornton ◽  
R. L. Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Public Works ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public Building ◽  
The Public ◽  
Manpower Needs ◽  
Two Peaks

The paper quantifies the relative manpower costs of the public building programs of the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome from 29 b.c. to a.d. 68. We used both literary and archaeological sources for obtaining our data. Upon charting the data we discovered that the manpower needs show two peaks, one between 12 b.c. and 3 b.c., the other from a.d. 38–51.

scholarly journals Damage to civil engineering structures due to the near Izu-Ohshima earthquake of January 14, 1978

1979 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-135
Author(s):  
Toshio Iwasaki ◽  
Kazuhiko Kawashima
Keyword(s):  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Ground Motions ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Engineering Structures ◽  
The Public ◽  
Izu Peninsula ◽  
Field Investigations ◽  
Richter Scale ◽  
Civil Engineering Structures

A severe earthquake hit the middle part of Izu Peninsula on January
 14, 1973, registering a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale. The
 Public Works Research Institute the Ministry of Construction has conducted field investigations on damages to engineering structures, such as highways, tunnels, bridges immediately after the outbreak of the earthquake. This paper describes the results of investigations of the earthquake damage, and includes (1) outline of the earthquake, (2) topography and geology of Izu Peninsula, (3) earthquake ground motions, (4) damage statistics, (5) damages to civil engineering structures, and closing remarks.

A Tramp at Home

2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-86
Author(s):  
AXEL NISSEN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Public ◽  
Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn ◽  
Homeless Men ◽  
Popular Appeal ◽  
Romantic Friendship ◽  
Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) contains the materials for a wide-ranging analysis of the different and competing understandings of American manhood in the nineteenth century and the ways in which men might interact with each other and love each other. In order to understand better the sexual and emotional dynamics of the novel, we must understand the other kinds of writings about men alone and together that Twain was responding to. In this essay I place Twain's classic novel in two nineteenth-century discursive contexts that have been obscured in the existing criticism: the fiction of romantic friendship and the public debate on the homeless man. Huckleberry Finn may be seen as the reverse of the medal of normative, middle-class masculinity in Victorian America and as a counterpoint to the more conventional, idealized accounts of romantic friendship in the works of several of Twain's contemporaries and rivals. I suggest that while Huck and Jim negotiate an uncommon type of romantic friendship across barriers of race and generation, the duke and the dauphin appear as a grotesque parody of high-minded "brotherly love." By co-opting some of the conventions of romantic friendship fiction, Twain decreased the distance between his underclass characters and middle-class readers. Yet by writing and publishing the first novel about tramps during a period of heightened national concern about homeless men, Twain increased the topicality and popular appeal of what was, in its initial American publication in 1885, a subscription book that needed an element of sensationalism in order to sell.

The end of revisionism?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Pierson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
The Public ◽  
Trade Unionism

This chapter argues that the starkest of the institutional problems facing social democracy now is a growing inability to win elections. Added to this was the challenge of a long-term decline in the industrial wing of social democracy. Historically, social democracy has been the politics of the labour movement, and a key component of this movement has always been trade unions and their members. While that relationship was not always as close as it was in the British or Swedish cases, trade unionism was almost always the ‘other half’ of social democracy. However, the 1980s were a time of loss for this ‘other side’ of social democracy. Trade unions were becoming increasingly feminised, more focused in the public sector and drawing in increasing numbers of middle-class public service members.

Research on the Specialization and Education of the Civil Engineers

2014 ◽  
Vol 1030-1032 ◽  
pp. 2722-2726
Author(s):  
Hai Xie
Keyword(s):  
Civil Engineer ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Public Works ◽  
The Public ◽  
Military Engineer ◽  
Additional Qualification ◽  
Land Surveying ◽  
Military Engineering ◽  
The Military

A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering, the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected. Originally, a civil engineer worked on public works projects and was contrasted with the military engineer, who worked on armaments and defenses. Over time, various branches of engineering have become recognized as distinct from civil engineering, including chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering, while much of military engineering has been absorbed by civil engineering. In some places, a civil engineer may perform land surveying; in others, surveying is limited to construction surveying, unless an additional qualification is obtained.

Interrogating Thompson’s Community Approach to Oral History with Special Reference to Selected Oral History Programmes in Zimbabwe

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Sindiso Bhebhe
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Community Approach ◽  
National Institutions ◽  
Archival Institution ◽  
National Archives

 Thompson (1998, 27) argued that “there have been telling criticisms of a relationship with informers in which a middle-class professional determines who is to be interviewed and what is to be discussed and then disappears with a tape of somebody’s life which they never hear about again—and if they did, might be indignant at the unintended meanings imposed on their words.” This is one of the criticisms that have been levelled at conventional oral history methodologies, especially those used by national institutions such as National Archives of Zimbabwe. It is Thompson’s argument that with the use of a “community approach” methodology, communities are empowered and then have confidence in writing their history which will be accessible to the public. This article will therefore interrogate Thompson’s concept using case studies of the Mafela Trust, the Tso-ro-tso San Development Trust and the National Archives of Zimbabwe to understand the positives and negatives of the community approach to oral history. The Mafela Trust is a private archival institution which deals with the memory of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) whilst the Tso-ro-tso San Development Trust deals with the San Community of Zimbabwe. These institutions have used oral history as a tool to collect their oral testimonies; therefore this article will use oral history testimonies, some of which are archived, as its source of data. Document analysis will also be done 

Self Realization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simine Short
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
Urban Transit ◽  
Transit System ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Independent Consulting ◽  
Administrative Experience ◽  
American Society ◽  
Civil Engineers

This chapter describes Octave Chanute's search for accomplishments beyond a successful career. While the engineering profession gave him administrative experience, personal contacts, and status, he strived for higher goals and wanted to emulate European civil engineers, who did not just design public works but sought new challenges and possessed the energy to fight for innovation. Envisioning his career, Chanute wanted freedom to realize his personal capabilities. He wished to solve problems, to attract clients who would seek his advice as the authoritative voice on special projects, and to advise in lawsuits as an expert engineering witness. Chanute also sought recognition and respect from his peers. The chapter details Chanute's membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers; his involvement in the evolution of New York City's urban transit system; his interest in aeronautics; and his life as an independent consulting engineer.

scholarly journals A contribuição de Daniel Pedro Müller para a transição do ensino da Engenharia Militar para a Civil na província de São Paulo (1802-1841) * Daniel Pedro Müller’s contribution for the transition of Military to Civil Engineering education in the province...

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
JOSÉ ROGÉRIO BEIER
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Public Works ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Engineering School ◽  
Military Engineer ◽  
Military Engineering ◽  
The Military ◽  
Civil Engineers

<p><strong>Resumo: </strong>A partir da reconstituição da trajetória do engenheiro militar luso-brasileiro Daniel Pedro Müller (1785-1841), este artigo visa destacar a contribuição deste ex-agente da Coroa na transição do ensino da engenharia militar para a civil na Província de São Paulo, sobretudo, através da organização de uma escola de engenheiros construtores de estradas que funcionou, de modo intermitente, entre 1836 e 1849, formando muitos dos engenheiros civis que dirigiram obras públicas em São Paulo na segunda metade do século XIX.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave: </strong>Engenharia Militar; São Paulo; Daniel Pedro Müller.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Abstract: </strong>By reconstructing the trajectory of the luso-brazilian military engineer Daniel Pedro Müller (1785-1841), this paper aims to highlight the contribution of this former agent of the Crown in the transition from the military to civil engineering education in the Province of São Paulo, most of all, through the organization of a road builders engineering school which worked, intermittently, from 1836 to 1849, forming many of the civil engineers who worked as directors of public works in São Paulo during the second half of the 19<sup>th</sup> century.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Military engineering; São Paulo; Daniel Pedro Müller.</p>

scholarly journals I Have Seen the Future! Ethics, Progress, and the Grand Challenges for Engineering

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Herkert ◽  
David A. Banks
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
The U.S

This article is a critique of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering’s report, Grand Challenges for Engineering, based upon the “technocratic view” of progress as defined by historian Leo Marx and as exemplified by the public works of Robert Moses, including the 1964 World’s Fair, as well as technological determinist narratives on the digital age drawn from contemporary culture. While the so-called Grand Challenges purport to have social aims, a close reading of the document’s overview essay suggests that the technocratic view of progress—which views technology primarily as an end in itself rather than as a means to social progress and fails to explicitly account for engineers’ social and ethical responsibilities—still dominates the thinking of at least some leaders of the engineering profession. This technocratic thinking presents a critical barrier to achieving social justice both within engineering and in the larger world.

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