Ideas of holistic engineering meet engineering work practices

ABSTRACT

This article critically reflects on the viability of the idea that reforming engineering education will result in more holistic engineering work practices. Drawing on an empirical study, the article aims to demonstrate that in order to change existing engineering work practices, it might be necessary to change engineers’ knowledge and skills; however, such changes are far from sufficient. Conditions and circumstances external to practitioners’ knowledge and skills are crucial if engineering work is to become more holistic. To illustrate this point, the article outlines an empirical study of a small team of professionals who engage in holistic engineering work practices in an engineering consultancy company. The work practices are investigated using a philosophical empirical method that inquires into the doings, sayings, and relatings of the practitioners. The study describes the practice architecture that shapes and is shaped by the practitioners’ activities, and it demonstrate how the practice landscape prevents enactments of holistic engineering work practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering work practices
• engineering reform
• holistic engineering
• practice theory

Notes

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2 National Academy of Engineering, The Engineer of 2020, 2004; ATV, På sporet af fremtidens ingeniørprofiler, 1997; ATV, Ingeniørernes nye virkelighed, 2000.

3 Duderstadt, Engineering for a Changing World, 2008; Douglas et al., Citizen Engineer, 2010; Riley, Engineering and Social Justice, 2008.

4 Williams, Retooling, 2002; Jamison et al., A Hybrid Imagination, 2011; Buch and Bucciarelli, “Getting Context Back in Engineering Education,” 2015; Bucciarelli and Drew, “Liberal Studies in Engineering,” 2015.

5 www.engineeringchallenges.org.

6 Kemmis and Grootenboer, “Situating Praxis in Practice,” 2008; Kemmis et al., Changing Practices, Changing Education, 2014.

7 Kemmis and Mutton, “Education for Sustainability (EfS),” 2012; Kemmis et al., Changing Practices, Changing Education, 2014, p. 13.

8 Linde, Life Stories, 1993; Linde, Working the Past, 2008.

9 Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography, 2014.

10 Gherardi, How to Conduct a Practice-Based Study, 2012; Kemmis et al., Changing Practices, Changing Education, 2014; Schatzki, The Site of the Social, 2002; Buch, “Studying Engineering Practice,” 2015.

11 Schatzki, Social Practices, 1996, pp. 89–90.

12 Kemmis and Grootenboer, “Situating Praxis in Practice,” 2008; Kemmis et al., Changing Practices, Changing Education, 2014.

13 E.g. Fenwick and Nerland, Reconceptualising Professional Learning, 2014; Rooney et al., “Engineers' Professional Learning,” 2014; Green and Hopwood, The Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education, 2015; Hopwood, Professional Practice and Learning, 2016; Kemmis et al., Changing Practices, Changing Education, 2014; Hager and Lee, Practice, Learning and Change, 2012.

14 Schatzki, Social Practices, 1996, p. 98.

15 Boelskifte and Jørgensen, “Design & Innovation,” 2005.

16 Boelskifte and Jørgensen, “Design & Innovation,” 2005.

17 Jørgensen and Valderama, “Entrepreneurship and Response Strategies,” 2005, p. 413.

18 Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist, 2001.

19 All professionals that were working with technical solutions were considered to be engineers. At Sarix, the official title for professionals was engineers, regardless of whether they had formal engineering training from a technical university or whether they were trained within science disciplines or social-technical programs.

20 Cf. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1958.

21 Schatzki, The Site of the Social, 2002.

22 Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice, 1990.

23 Rabinow and Bennett, Designing Human Practices, 2012.

24 Jørgensen and Valderama, “Entrepreneurship and Response Strategies,” 2012, p. 413.

25 Kunda, Engineering Culture, 2006.

26 Schatzki, The Site of the Social, 2002.

27 Bucciarelli and Kuhn, “Engineering Education and Engineering Practice,” 1997, p. 212.

28 Schatzki, The Site of the Social, 2002, p. 86.

29 Poel and Royakkers, Ethics, Technology and Engineering, 2011.

30 Cf. Taylor, Modern Social Imaginaries, 2004; Jasanoff and Kim, Dreamscapes of Modernity, 2015.

31 Schatzki, The Site of the Social, 2002, p. 44.

32 Jamison et al., A Hybrid Imagination, 2011.

33 Bucciarelli and Drew, “Liberal Studies in Engineering,” 2015.

34 Boelskifte and Jørgensen, “Design & Innovation,” 2005.

35 Kemmis et al., Changing Practices, Changing Education, 2014, p. 62. Italics in the original.

36 Kluge and Negt, History and Obstinacy, 2014.

37 Kemmis et al., The Action Research Planner, 2014.