Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past

A Social History of Technology

Auteur: van der Vleuten, Erik; Oldenziel, Ruth; Davids, Mila
Éditeur: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9789462985407
eISBN Pdf: 9789048536504
Lieu de publication: Amsterdam , Netherlands
Année de publication électronique: 2017
Mois : Mars
Pages: 192
DDC: 303.48/3
Langue: Anglais

Légende

Technology today is often presented as our best hope of solving the world's social and sustainability problems. And that's nothing new: engineers have always sought to meet the big challenges of their times-even as those challenges have shaped their technology. This book offers a historical look at those interactions between engineering and social challenges, showing how engineers developed solutions to past problems, and looking at the ways that those solutions often bring with them unintended consequences that themselves require solving.

Cover
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Engineering for a Changing World
- Lessons from engineering history: Society, Enterprise, Users
- Technology: Dream and nightmare
- Engineering for a changing world
- The structure of this book
1. The Age of Promise, 1815-1914
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Society
  - Promises to Society: Peace and progress for all
  - The national promise: The infrastructure state and civil engineers
  - The urban promise: The Urban Machine
  - The global promise: International machinery and the civilizing mission
- 1.3 Enterprise
  - Technology’s promise to enterprise
  - The inventor-entrepreneur
  - Technology and the opportunity-seeking entrepreneur
  - Strategies for business organization
- 1.4 Users
  - Technology’s promises to users: “Power to you”
  - Innovative user-consumers: The telephone and the railway
  - The bicycle and the car
  - User-activists
  - User-tinkerers
- 1.5 Engineers
  - Technology’s promise to engineering
  - Engineering education
  - Engineers and social engagement
2. The Age of Crisis, 1914-1945
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Society
  - Peace and war
  - Prosperity and decline
  - Liberty and enslavement
  - Civilization and barbarism
- 2.3 Enterprise
  - Business and bankruptcy
  - Patent wars
  - Worker nightmares
- 2.4 Users
  - Access and accidents
  - Users and misusers
- 2.5 Engineers
  - Hero and villain
  - Engineers in totalitarian regimes
  - A new hope
3. The Age of Technocracy, 1945-1970
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 Society
  - Making technology non-political: The linear model of innovation
  - Making politics technical: A systems approach to societal challenges
- 3.3 Enterprise
  - The heyday of R&D
  - The linear model in practice: organizational challenges
  - Systems approaches in business planning
- 3.4 Users
  - Consumer appliances in the age of “projected users”
  - Projected users in the built environment
  - Users and the systems approach: the car-centered city
- 3.5 Engineers
  - Growth in influence and numbers
  - Theory and science
  - Professional independence and ethical codes
  - The tide turns
4. The Age of Participation, 1970-2015
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Society
  - Opening up the system
  - Participation by protest
  - Participation by mediation
  - Participation by delegation
- 4.3 Enterprise
  - Flipping the linear model of innovation
  - Commercializing research and open innovation
  - User-centered innovation
  - Corporations under social pressure
- 4.4 Users
  - Energetic user-tinkerers
  - Mobility and “biketivists”
  - Hacktivists and other users
- 4.5 Engineers
  - Opening up institutions
  - Opening up engineering curricula
  - Participation: Science shops and the valorization of knowledge
Epilogue: Engineering the Future
- Different societal challenges
- Challenges to enterprise and users
- Beyond technocracy and participation
Notes
References
Illustration credits
Index
List of figures
- Internet Freedom and Cyber Security
- Cheering for the Railway
- The Railway: A “Civilizing” Technology?
- Founding a Fortune—in Chemicals
- Scientific Management at Work
- How Users Shaped Technology
- The Electric Car—Circa 1900
- Wind Power Takes Flight
- Technology Runs Amok
- Technologies of War
- Dark Side of the Assembly Line
- Technology: Blessing or Curse?
- Engineers on Trial
- Tools of Technocracy
- Engineering the Lunar Landing
- Trusting Experts
- Political Enemies—But Friends in Science
- Users and Experts
- The Cynical Side of Traffic Separation
- Power to the People
- Protesting Nuclear Power
- “Opening up” Innovation
- Rock and Reorganization
- Reclaiming the Streets
- Tackling the Solar Challenge