Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I SOLIDARITY AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
- PART II SOLIDARITY AND THE THEORY OF SOVIET-TYPE SOCIETY
- PART III PROFESSIONALS AND SOLIDARITY
- 7 Professionals, power and prestige
- 8 Engineers in Solidarity
- 9 Physicians in Solidarity
- PART IV CONCLUSION
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Soviet and East European Studies
8 - Engineers in Solidarity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I SOLIDARITY AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
- PART II SOLIDARITY AND THE THEORY OF SOVIET-TYPE SOCIETY
- PART III PROFESSIONALS AND SOLIDARITY
- 7 Professionals, power and prestige
- 8 Engineers in Solidarity
- 9 Physicians in Solidarity
- PART IV CONCLUSION
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Soviet and East European Studies
Summary
In Soviet-type societies, engineers and other professionals constitute a pivotal class for social reproduction and transformation. They are between the elite, which allocates economic surplus, and the working class, which creates the surplus but has little say in how it is allocated. Although some consider professionals to be potentially a class for itself, the limited autonomous power resources professionals have at their disposal make it more likely that they will have to serve somebody in Soviet-type society. If professionals can acquire and use in their interests the political and bureaucratic power of the authorities, then they could become a class for itself. So long as political criteria overwhelm professional-class criteria in the distribution of power and privilege, however, professionals remain “dependent” on political authorities. It is difficult, therefore, to imagine professionals en masse acting in opposition to the authorities of Soviet-type society. But this limited imagination depends on a failure to identify the sources of dependence.
The attribute of Soviet-type society which makes professionals dependent on political authorities is organizational hegemony. The greater the limitation in this hegemony, the greater the opportunity for professionals to choose other alliances. The relative independence of the Catholic Church in pre-Solidarity Poland, for instance, gave some journalists alternative outlets for their work. But the Church's independence does not help to reshape the range of alliances for all professionals, especially for engineers. Opportunities for alternative engineer alliances arrive under two conditions. First, the restoration of private enterprise affords some engineers new possibilities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Professionals, Power and Solidarity in PolandA Critical Sociology of Soviet-Type Society, pp. 259 - 289Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991