Fremtidsstaten og samfundsmaskinen: Social ingeniørkunst mellem teknokrati og produktivisme

The Future State and Society as a Machine. –Social Engineering between Technocracy and Productivism.

The identity and status of the engineer is closely related to the massive impact engineering science has had on the development of modern industrial society. Science is considered to be the driving force behind economic progress, and the engineer is the hero of modern society par excellence. The article deals with the debate on technocratism and social engineering in Denmark during the interwar years. This ideology demanded total political power to scientists and engineers, and this demand was fueled by the productivist vision of abundance and harmony in an affluent futuristic society. In short terms this is how the principle of scientific leadership is imbedded in modern society as a utopian ideology and as functional bureaucracy mainly concerned with creating the perfect rational society under the leadership of an elite consisting of scientific experts.