La mobilité des ingénieurs et la construction des sites : les leçons du Canal du Midi

The successful construction of the Canal du Midi hinged on the mobility and collaboration of diverse engineers. This study reveals that the project's realization was made possible by the convergence of varied engineering traditions, facilitated by the movement of experts across different phases of construction. The workforce comprised four key groups: overseers, seasonal laborers, intermittent specialists, and military inspectors, forming a distributed cognitive system. By analyzing these dynamics, the research underscores how the integration of disparate skills and the fluidity of personnel were critical to overcoming complex engineering challenges in 17th-century infrastructure projects.

Mukerji, C. (2017). La mobilité des ingénieurs et la construction des sites : les leçons du Canal du Midi. Mobilités d’Ingénieurs En Europe, XVe-XVIIIe Siècle, 87–99. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pur.155287