Engineering as a Social Enterprise (1991) / Chapter Skim
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The Social Function of Engineering: A Current Assessment
The Social Function of Engineering: A Current Assessment
Pages 73-88
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From page 73... ...
The assessment of engineering's impact on society has been largely left to other disciplines. Social scientists and philosophers who have studied the technological process have achieved a considerable level of sophistication.
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From page 74... ...
SOCIAL IMPACTS OF ENGINEERING Many engineering developments of this century with immense impacts on our lives have not been accompanied by realistic engineering views of those impacts on the social fabric or the environment. Would the societal consequences have been different if engineers had been more involved in a systematic study of engineering's complex role in society, had a working dialogue with social scientists, and had better communication with the public?
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From page 75... ...
The complexity of the interactions between society and engineering is at the root of unrealistic expectations about engineering, as social entities are often inadequately organized to develop and use engineering effectively. It is also at the root of the frustration of engineers unable to bring their capabilities to bear on the solution of social problems or the effective organization of the engineering enterprise.
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From page 76... ...
It is further reinforced by massive layoffs in defense industries and practices in the construction business that treat engineers more as commodities than as professionals Qacobs, 1989~. In different societies engineering provides most of the same artifacts: shelter, energy and communications, manufacturing, water supply, extraction and use of resources, and disposal of waste.
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From page 77... ...
, our society often avoids rethinking fundamental social issues and organization. However, short-run technological fixes can put us at much greater risk in the long term.
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From page 78... ...
At a national and global scale, there is a similar lack of powerful supranational organizations to mobilize and control technological resources. Hence, the danger of global environmental damage continues.
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From page 79... ...
Even when production is high, in many countries grain supplies rot for lack of effective storage and distribution systems.
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From page 80... ...
The task is particularly daunting for the United States, with its thin line of 20,000 engineering teachers of growing disparity in cultural backgrounds. The social role of engineering cannot overlook military engineeringthe activity from which modern engineering is derived—as one of the most controversial facets of that role (Mitcham and Siekevitz, 1989~.
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From page 81... ...
When social systems and technology have been able to complement each other, engineering has been immensely effective in improving human life by augmenting agricultural production, building infrastructure, producing jobs, improving public health, etc.
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From page 82... ...
Globalization also means extreme competitiveness, with greater potential instabilities for engineering enterprises and the employment of engineers. But the greatest challenge that globalization presents engineers and engineering education is how to increase throughout the world the rate of technological, economic, and social progress through the creation of new and more adaptable technologies and better sociotechnical integration.
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From page 83... ...
A further example of engineering acquiescence in the subordination of technological possibilities and common sense is the anarchical situation in the United States concerning telecommunications. The current absence of a plan for the transition to fiber optics may deny the United States, to the advantage of its competitors abroad, the possibility of developing integrated new technologies for the largest telecommunications system and the biggest computer market in the world (Keyworth and Abell, 1990~.
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From page 84... ...
For instance, our cities offer vast opportunities for engineering in restoring housing stocks and municipal services, and in forming new urban job-creating technologies and enterprises (Bugliarello, 1991; Mayor's Commission, 1989~. However, those opportunities cannot be realized as long as engineers continue to occupy subordinate positions in municipal hierarchies and are not prepared to take the lead in drawing bold plans to address these issues city by city, town by town.
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From page 85... ...
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to gratefully acknowledge Professor Walter Rosenblith of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hedy Sladovich of the National Academy of Engineering for their painstaking review and editing of this paper, Professor Steven Goldman of Lehigh University, for having kindly rushed to me the manuscript of his forthcoming entry on Engineering Education in the Encyclopedia of Higher Education; Professor Carl Mitcham of Pennsylvania State University for his bibliographical guidance; Dr. Joseph Jacobs of Jacobs Engineering for his views on the issue of engineering services tending to be treated as a commodity; Professor George Schillinger of Polytechnic University
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From page 86... ...
Medical intervention in the course of a natural process we call disease is also an artifact, making it akin to engineering in its science-influenced endeavor to modify nature. Art, like engineering, enhances society through the creation of artifacts that at times come close to engineering, as in architecture and a number of contemporary artwork involving electronics, optics (e.g., motion pictures)
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From page 87... ...
1986. The Revolt of the Engineers: Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession.
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From page 88... ...
1966. Can technology replace social engineering?
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