discerning between “the community of engineers” and “the society of engineers”

Question

Would you please specifically show me what is the difference between the two?

the community of engineers

the society of engineers

Thanks

Answer 1

Without context, this is difficult. However, I suspect that "the community of engineers" refers to a generalized body of engineers, while "the society of engineers" refers to the social interactions of engineers, particularly as those interactions have a style or flavor unique to engineers.

So one might say "Having taken the job, I found myself part of the community of engineers,": that is, you consider yourself an engineer among other engineers, acknowledged as such by other members of the community.

In contrast, "All things considered, I find I prefer the society of engineers" would mean that you prefer to interact with engineers as opposed to another group (artists, for instance).

This is somewhat confused by the existence of various engineering societies such as the ASME (formerly the American Society of Mechanical Engineers), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASME which is a professional society.