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Obvious Decisions

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

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


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Graber, F. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?