Los Ingenieros, la Sociedad y la Religión. by Ramón BayésReview by: Oscar Uribe-VillegasSocial Forces, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Jun., 1967), pp. 603-604Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2575931 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 603

havior, none of them seems adequate to explain gang delinquency. The paper by Holtzman and Moore, on the relationship of formal aspects of family structure to the attitudes of youth toward problems of personal and family living, is in- teresting not only in terms of its findings, but also because of its imaginative use of research and analytical techniques. Finally, the two chap- ters by the Sherifs, summarizing their long-term research program on natural groups of ado- lescents, are very provocative, particularly be- cause of their careful articulation of theory and methods. Other readers with other interests will doubtless single out other chapters and make dif- ferent evaluations, but these are the pieces this reviewer found most stimulating.

WILLIAM H. SEWELL University of Wisconsin

A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGINEERING. By W. H. G. Armytage. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press, 1966. 378 pp. Illustrated. $10.00.

The objectives of this book, according to its author, are the following: "to chart technological developments with especial reference to Britain, to indicate how they have affected and been affected by social life at certain stages, and to offer some clues as to the origins of innovations and institu- tions." While the first of these objectives is ad- mirably served by the book, it does less well with the other two.

The book begins with Stone Age inventions and traces technological development through the advent of atomic energy, automation, and rocketry. The major portion of the book, however, deals with technological advances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and its focus is upon develop- ments in Great Britain. Since the' major engineer- ing accomplishments in Great Britain during this period were in mechanical and civil engineering, more attention is given to these areas than to other engineering fields. The book contains a considerable amount of information about the his- tory of technology and applied science and more space is devoted to this topic than to the develop- ment of engineering as a social institution. While some attention is given to the emergence of pro- fessional training schools and professional associa- tions of engineers, the book is primarily a history of technology rather than of engineering.

The book is not about the social consequences of technology in the manner, for example, of the work of W. F. Ogburn. Very little space is given to either the social effects of new consumer goods such as the automobile or radio or of changes in production technology. The effect' of technolog- ical change upon division of labor-the mechanism through which engineering advances have their most pervasive social consequences-is discussed only very briefly. Somewhat more emphasis is placed upon the social and cultural causes of tech-

nological innovation. The focus here is upon the demands of warfare and of industrialization and differences in the development of science in various countries.

The major weakness of the book, in its treat- ment of both the social causes and results of technological development, is the absence of any theory relating technical and social change. The impressive array of information assembled would have been more instructive if ordered by such a theory. It would be unfair, however, to fault the author, an educator and historian, on this score. Sociology has not provided an adequate theory in this area.

If A Social History of Engineering is not, from a sociological point of view, a systematic treat- ment of the relationship of technology to social change, it is nevertheless a useful reference book on the history of technology. The book has a good index and bibliography which contribute to its usefulness for this purpose. The informa- tion base assembled in books of this kind may eventually stimulate sociologists to develop, better theories relating technological and social change.

WILLIAM A. FAUNCFE Michigan State University

Los INGENIEROS, LA SOCIEDAD Y LA REIGION. By Ramon Bayes. Barcelona: Editorial Fontanella, 1965. 202 pp.

In very few instances have we read a book with so much understanding and regret as in this case. Religion is among the least studied fields in Spain and Latin America: that is, least studied from a scientific point of view. And Spanish society probably is also one of those which have been studied very little in recent times.

We consider this book with understanding be- cause, as Jose Toro points out, in his foreword, a work so very simple in its technical aspects- such as this-may cover months of painful effort in sociologically underdeveloped countries. And we consider it with regret because even with the author's good will and effort, this is not a definitive investigation but remains a first approach to the problem of the relation between religion, social thought, and professional training of a group of engineering students of Barcelona University.

The author could not see that, in fact, there were not three but more than three variables and more than two or three relationships to be considered; that he was working not only with religion as a single variable but that he was dealing, on the one hand, with religious education and, on the other, with religious behavior; that, then, it was possible for him to relate previous education and further practices, kind of education and social outlook, social outlook and religious practices, pro- fessional training and religious practices; profes- sional training and social outlook.

Bayes had the necessary materials but he was

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604 SOCIAL FORCES

not able to classify them in a relevant way. This was a methodological failure which was followed by a technical one. He depends almost wholly on the computation of percentages, for instance, whereas very little additional work would have enabled him to use contingency tables in order to establish the corresponding meaningful associa- tions between each pair of variables.

But, even so, Bayes' book is worth reading. It shows a deep concern with social matters, a growing interest in an empirical approach, and an awareness of deep, even if unseen, changes in Spanish society. It examines especially the way in which the engineering students of one of the most industrialized regions of Spain define their own "social mission" (as a defense of manage- ment/ a defense in behalf of the workers/ a bridge between them/ an occupation which requires so- cial neutralism) ; the criteria accepted by them- selves regarding the remuneration of work; the way in which they reject or admit, or the way in which they qualify (when they admit) the ex- istence of a "social problem" and the introduc- tion of "socialization" as a solution to it. All these things could be studied in better technical ways (with the aid of sociometric scales, for in- stance) but, even in the way in which they were examined and presented, they constitute interest- ing aspects of the problem.

Even if it is not satisfactory, Bayes' effort may be considered with deep understanding. It is better to know what is good even if the means to reach it are unknown in a certain moment (if those means are sought in the following moment) than to know the means without any knowledge of the useful ends to which they may be put to work.

OSCAR URIBE-VILLEGAS

Universidad Nacional de Mexico

LAWYERS' ETHICS: A SURVEY OF THE NEW YORK

CITY BAR. By Jerome E. Carlin. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1966. 267 pp. Illus- trated. $6.75.

Jerome Carlin's former book, Lawyers on Their Own: A Study of Individual Practitioners in Chi- cago, and his degree in law, as well as in sociology, splendidly qualify him for under- taking this sensitive topic for study, the analysis of professional ethics. This research was part of the program on the Legal Profession at the Co- lumbia Law School and received support from the Russell Sage Foundaiton and the Walter E. Meyer Research Institute of Law.

Interviews were had with some 800 lawyers in 247 random clusters of office suites listed in the law directories for Manhattan and the Bronx. Considerable ingenuity is demonstrated in the analy- sis of the data through the development of com- posite indices to arrive at evidence for a series of related conclusions. Although the larger firms, the

better law training, the more Protestant-northwest European ethnic backgrounds, and the higher the status of clients, the more ethical the conduct of lawyers-these attributes cease to apply or their dominance is drastically reduced by the intro- duction of control factors noted below.

The dependent variable, lawyer ethics, is meas- ured by ali Ethical Behavior Index Score based on practitioners' admissions of norm violations, or that they would violate norms, in a number of selected hypohtetical situations presented to the respondents. This index is rigorously validated (pp. 53-61). Rather than the above background factors, it seems that norm violators are more directly explained by the presence of situational factors in a lawyer's practice, as demonstrated by Carlin's cross-tabulation of respondents' Ethical Behavior Index Scores with measures of "Effec- tive Opportunity to Exploit Clients," "Effective Client Pressure" and "Index of Client Related Pressures." Similar results are had with measures of ethical climate of office and with "Level of Court and Agency Contact." Finally, combining several measures produces an "Index of Situa- tional Inducements to Violate" that appears to completely "explain" variations in frequency of violations.

The explication of norm violators in law prac- tice by the presence of situational factors is a significant contribution of survey research and to the understanding of professional behavior. Dr. Carlin's application of these research findings to the general theoretical explication of deviant be- havior is insightful, but less convincing. Per- haps a straw man is attributed to those who stress normative commitment as a salient factor (pp. 4-7, 173-76) ; evidence is lacking to conclude that "inner disposition" and external pressures are about equally influential (p. 148) ; the "Index of Ethical Concern" is characterized by the diffi- culties of all ex post facto data of survey re- search, in this case, its validity as a measure of pre-law school moral commitment may be con- taminated by current client pressures; and the theoretical question remains as to whether the client-related pressures to violate don't neutralize the professional norms to produce attitudes that constitute new norms in a subculture of the bar (in fact, suggested by Carlin, p. 172). The ap- parent conflict between "normative commitment" and "situational" explanations of deviance are re- solved by the demonstration of the processes in- volved in norm neutralization (implied on p. 130, but minimized by chart, p. 171). These remarks in no way detract from the forceful comments that denigrate the role of law-school training and the policies of contemporary bar associations in main- taining professional norms.

ARTHUR LEWIS WOOD

University of Connecticut

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