Introductory Remarks: What is it all about? Andrew Jamison PROCEED meeting, DTU, October 13, 2010

The aims of PROCEED are to: improve the education of engineers, so that they might better be able to meet the challenges they can be expected to face in their working lives, bring together Danish and international researchers with knowledge about these matters in a strategic alliance, compare the different ways in which the challenges have been responded to in Denmark as well as internationally, identify examples of “best practice” in regard to reforming engineering education, and reach out to engineering educators in a series of interactive workshops and seminars

Challenges Facing Science and Engineering The sustainability challenge – how to deal with environmental problems, energy and other resource exploitation and, not least, climate change The societal challenge – how to deal with the permeation of our societies by technology with new design skills in socially responsible ways The technoscientific challenge – how to combine scientific understanding and technical skills in new forms of competence

“The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.” The Sustainability Challenge from Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech

The Societal Challenge Due to the increasing role that technology plays in ever more areas of society, there is a growing need for organizational, managerial and communicative competencies and for economic, social and broader cultural ”contextual” understanding among engineers

The Challenge of Technoscience A blurring of discursive boundaries between science and technology, nature and humanity A trespassing of institutional borders between public and private, economic and academic A mixing of skills and competencies between theoretical and practical knowledge

Response Strategies The dominant, or ”hubristic” strategy: commercialization, entrepreneurship, transdisciplinarity The residual, or ”habitual” strategy : academicization, expertise, (sub)disciplinarity An emerging, or ”hybrid” strategy : contextualization, engagement, cross-disciplinarity

Transdisciplinarity, or ”mode 2” ”Knowledge which emerges from a particular context of application with its own distinct theoretical structures, research methods and modes of practice but which may not be locatable on the prevailing disciplinary map.” Michael Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge (1994)

A Kind of Hubris transgressing established forms of quality control ”a drift of epistemic criteria” (Elzinga) transcending human limitations ”converging technologies” (bio, info, cogno, nano) neglecting the broader public, or social interest ”academic capitalism”: engineering in the private interest (over)emphasis on commercialization propagation of competitiveness rather than cooperation

The Forces of Habit(us) The challenges primarily responded to by niche-seeking among scientists and engineers Taught by reconfiguring established scientific and engineering fields: ”subdisciplinarity” Politics left largely outside of research and education: ”outsourcing” of ethics and responsibility A continuing belief in separating the ”texts” of science and engineering from broader cultural contexts

“A discipline is defined by possession of a collective capital of specialized methods and concepts, mastery of which is the tacit or implicit price of entry to the field. It produces a ‘historical transcendental,’ the disciplinary habitus, a system of schemes of perception and appreciation (where the incorporated discipline acts as a censorship).” Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity (2004) The Discipline as Habitus

An Emerging Strategy?: Fostering a Hybrid Imagination At the discursive, or macro level Sustainability engineering: redefining the ”identity” of engineering in relation to the sustainability challenge At the institutional, or meso level Engineering citizenship: providing space for critical reflection about the engineer’s role(s) in society At the personal, or micro level Responsible engineering: integrating contextual understanding into engineering education

PROCEED: Cross-disciplinarity in action Four universities: Aalborg, Århus, DTU and Roskilde Four fields: history of science and technology engineering education and pedagogy philosophy of technology STS and engineering studies

A Form for Change-Oriented Research Problem-driven, rather than disciplinary-driven A focus on processes of socio-cultural change Reflective, rather than explanatory ambition Participatory, interventionist methods Personal engagement in what is studied

PROCEED Work plan Jan-Aug 2010 – planning and initiation Sept 2010 – Aug 2012 – thematic research Jan 2012 – Aug 2013 – outreach activities Jan Dec 2013 – final reporting, conference

Thematic Projects A. Challenges and responses in historical perspective B. Curriculum design and learning outcomes C. Models and simulations in engineering D. Design capabilities and engineering practices in industry E. Integrating contextual knowledge into engineering education

Project A: The Challenges Facing Engineering Education in Historical Perspective Andrew Jamison PROCEED meeting, DTU, October 13, 2010

mechanization socialization modernization scientification globalization socialism populism anticolonialism (anti)fascism environmentalism feminism Cultural and Social Movements Waves of Appropriation enlightenment romanticism cooperation industrial science, big sciencetechnoscienceengineering sciences Cycles of Creative Reconstruction DTU Århus, COWI Aalborg, VESTAS Askov

An Underlying Tension in Engineering Education ”Theory” versus ”Practice” scientific emphasis technical emphasis academic orientationbusiness orientation book-based learningproblem-based learning academic teacherspractitioner teachers for example: DTUfor example: Aalborg

A Brief History of Recent Science and Technology “Little Science” “Big Science” “Controversy” “Globalization” Before WWII 1940s-50s 1960s-70s 1980s- main orientation industrial atomic societal commercial type of disciplinary multidisciplinary interdisciplinary transdisciplinary knowledge ideal, or values academic bureaucratic collective entrepreneurial

The Age of ”Big Science”, 1940s and 1950s expansion in size, scale and resources atomic orientation, both military and ”civilian” university-government collaboration bureaucratic norm, or value system new role for the state and multistate alliances

The Age of Controversy, 1960s and 1970s critiques of militarization and ”big science” public debates esp. about atomic energy interest in student-centered forms of education ”grass-roots” engineering (e.g. OVE) emergence of technology assessment

The Age of Globalization, from 1980s change in range and scope market orientation, ”privatization” university-industry collaboration entrepreneurial norm, or value system the state as strategist: innovation policy from assessment to promotion: ”foresight”

A Brief History of the Sustainability Challenge Awakening: 1960s critique of environmental pollution and the population ”explosion” Politicization: 1970s rise of environmental and anti-nuclear movements and an interest in appropriate technology Professionalization: 1980s discourse of sustainable development, integration of economics and environmentalism Globalization: 1990s-2000s- contending approaches to sustainability

From the Cognitive Praxis of Environmental Movements... Cosmological dimension: systemic holism, ”limits to growth” Technological dimension: appropriateness, ”small is beautiful” Organizational dimension: participatory research, ”citizen science”

Nordic Folkcenter for Renewable Energy The New Alchemy Institute Ark

...to Contending Modes of Sustainability Research sustainability sustainability sustainability science management engineering Forms of policy-driven commercial contextual activityresearch innovation appropriation Types ofpost-normal managerial/ situated/ Knowledge interdisciplinary transdisciplinary cross-disciplinary Forms oftraditional, professional, engaged, learningscholarly instrumental participatory Researcher’sexpert entrepreneur concerned citizen role Contexts of governments companies communities application (”state”) (”market”) (”civil society”)