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Social Studies of Science, Vol. 37, No. 6, 935-960 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312707078013

Obvious Decisions

Decision-making among French Ponts-et-Chaussées Engineers around 1800

Frédéric Graber

24 rue Montmartre 75001 Paris, frederic.graber{at}neuf.fr

This paper investigates the decision-making procedures in a technical assembly, the assemblée des Ponts et Chaussées, at the turn of the 19th century. The assemblée was the central institution of a French public-works administration, in which projects were discussed and adopted. The paper describes the transformations of this institution, its routine functioning, and focuses especially on a very controversial case during the Consulate, the Saint-Quentin canal, where conflicting opinions about the use of the vote emerged. The paper studies the engineers' preference for a consensus procedure and their mistrust for the vote. It analyses the epistemological justifications of such a consensus, especially the references to different forms of `obviousness', and its practical social forms, especially the importance (and ambiguous meaning) of silence.

Key Words: consensus • French state engineers • public works • technical assembly • voting


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