GC201411735 ART. "TECHNIQUES" AS AN ACTIVITY OR A SHARED IDEA: FIELDWORK IN A AERONAUTICS FIRM'S R&D

Abstract

As in the case of someone studying a distant tribe, being accepted in a big technology firm’s R&D division requires a long phase of learning the language, ideas and implicitly shared assumptions. In this world of engineers, “techniques” are a language and, at the same time, the key element in social bonds. By appropriating this language and measuring it against the practices and careers of research engineers, the fieldworker came to see that “techniques”, omnipresent in words, are elusive in actual work and in individual career trajectories. Both individual and collective, both a productive activity and a factor of social integration articulating a profession, a company and a group ­project, techniques are the key element in the mental world of engineers in Research and Development.