Aj48 The-Normative-Contents-Of-Engineering-Formation PDF

CHAPTER 34
The Normative Contents of

Engineering Formation
Engineering Studies
Gary Lee Downey
Introduction assumption that engineering educators are

rational actors who are most responsive to
Engineering educators will be persuaded to rational argument may prove, however, to
alter pedagogy and curricula only when pre- be self-limiting. It fails in particular to place
sented with rigorous research demonstrat- sufficient emphasis on the normative con-
ing better learning outcomes through alter- tents of engineering practice and, hence,
native practices. So goes one justification the normative commitments in engineering
for the recent rise of engineering educa- teaching and learning. EER must critically
tion research (EER) as an arena of schol- examine not only what engineering educa-
arship (Borrego, 2007; Lohmann, 2005). It tors do and how they do it but also why they
builds on the view that engineering edu- do it.
cators will be influenced most by educa- What is engineering for? What are engi-
tional research that best emulates the high neers for? Engineering knowledge and prac-
value they place on rational, rigorous, espe- tices always have normative contents. That
cially quantitative, approaches to their own is, engineers work in relation to or on behalf
research. Rigorous EER will increase the fre- of a multitude of broader sociomaterial
quency through which engineering educa- projects, that is, projects whose participants
tors adopt curricular innovations. Although and implications extend beyond engineers
engineering educators of the 1980s and 1990s and engineering. Because the education and
showed themselves to not be influenced by training of would-be engineers seeks to pre-
the many calls for change that lacked sup- pare them for engineering work, a key
porting evidence, and no one advocates bad issue for engineering education researchers
educational research, overemphasizing the to consider is the normative contents of engi-
neering formation. I use the European term
“formation” because it helpfully refers and
This contribution draws insights and some text from calls attention to both formal education and
(Downey, 2011). informal training.
693
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694 cambridge handbook of engineering education research
This contribution introduces readers to the past decade to build it into a schol-
research on the normative contents of engi- arly field of research, teaching, and out-
neering formation undertaken by scholars in reach. The discussion takes care to men-
and around the scholarly field of engineer- tion other parallel efforts that frequently
ing studies. Its distinctive lens is to focus overlap. The following section sharpens the
on the question of “critical participation” in central theme of this review by identify-
practices of engineering formation. By virtue ing the contents and practices of “norma-
of its theoretical and methodological com- tive holism” in engineering formation as a
mitments, every study of engineering educa- key challenge for research and critical par-
tion and training delineates potential path- ticipation by engineering studies scholar-
ways for participating critically in practices ship. It shows how the common tendency
of engineering formation, whether explicitly among engineers to distinguish technical
or implicitly (Downey, 2009). This contribu- from nontechnical dimensions of engineer-
tion identifies and reviews pathways for crit- ing work performs a normative judgment
ical participation enacted, recommended, or with variable implications. This section
implied by engineering studies research on also frames what follows by calling readers’
the normative contents of engineering. attention to four other contributions in this
A key question permeating this review volume that review research on the norma-
(addressed explicitly in the conclusion) con- tive contents of engineering formation. The
cerns ways in which different approaches present review is by no means comprehen-
to engineering studies research might be sive.
self-limiting as well, in the sense that they The main section provides brief over-
inhibit or throw up significant barriers to views of research on the issues of engineer-
critical participation in engineering forma- ing formation and (1) engineering as a pro-
tion, whether purposely or not. In recently fession; (2) private industry, (3) technology
reviewing possibilities for bringing engineer- through design; and (4) the nation, the state,
ing education and liberal education closer and the country. The final section examines
together, for example, Catherine Koshland, how what engineering studies work selects
Vice Provost at University of California– as its object of study and how it goes about
Berkeley, argued, “Engineering and the lib- conducting that study may affect the range
eral arts need to engage the other in a more of possibilities it affords for critical partici-
compatible relationship” (Koshland, 2010, pation in engineering formation.
p. 58). Such statements and associated ini- Overall, this review argues that, to
tiatives have a long history, especially in the achieve effective critical participation in
United States. In 1893, for example, William engineering formation, engineering studies
Burr, Professor of Civil Engineering at the research must ground practices of critical
Columbia College School of Mines, argued self-reflection that the makers of engineers
for placing “as the first and fundamental req- can successfully scale up and integrate with
uisite in the ideal education of young engi- other practices of engineering teaching and
neers, a broad, liberal education in philoso- learning.
phy and arts” whose main purpose “should
be such a cultivation of human qualities as
will subsequently enable engineers to meet Engineering Studies
men as well as matter” (Burr, 1893, p. 20).1 It
is worth reflecting on ways in which modes At a breakfast gathering during the 2002
of thought and analysis originating in the joint meeting of the Society for Social Stud-
liberal arts might limit the depths in engi- ies of Science (4S) and Society for History
neering education to which pedagogies that of Technology (SHOT), nineteen attendees
draw on such modes might achieve. expressed interest in establishing a schol-
The next section briefly introduces engi- arly network devoted to engineering stud-
neering studies by recounting initiatives over ies. A 1989 review essay titled “The Invisible
the normative contents of engineering formation 695
Engineer” had documented how researchers political, philosophical, rhetorical, and orga-
in sociology, philosophy, and history had nizational studies of engineers and engineer-
come to find engineering and engineers ing. INES-related scholarship would be built
intellectually uninteresting, albeit for differ- around the core question: What are the rela-
ent reasons (Downey, Donovan, & Elliott, tionships among the technical and the non-
1989). A 1994 review essay titled “Engi- technical dimensions of engineering prac-
neering Studies” hopefully traced expand- tices, and how do these relationships change
ing work by social scientists and human- over time and from place to place? The
ists on questions of engineering knowledge, presence of INES as a formal organization
engineering as technical work, and gen- would also encourage engineering studies
der in engineering, as well as recent schol- researchers to become critical participants
arly reflections by engineers on engineering in the practices they study, including, for
(Downey & Lucena, 1994). example, engineering formation, engineer-
Nineteen was a good number for a busy ing work, engineering design, equity in engi-
meeting. By 2002, many researchers were neering (gender, racial, ethnic, class, geopo-
finding engineering and engineers to offer a litical), and engineering service to society.
significant collection of research sites for re- Beginning in 2006, INES held workshops
theorizing the traditional model of knowl- in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA; Lisbon, Por-
edge as creation, diffusion, and utilization, tugal; Grafton, New York, USA; Cleveland,
especially by highlighting the importance Ohio, USA; and Copenhagen, Denmark.
of materializing effective, directional knowl- Also in 2006, INES members began organiz-
edge practices. One could feel growing ing INES-affiliated paper sessions at 4S and
momentum. Yet many scholars were find- SHOT. In 2008, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
ing it difficult to advance research projects began publishing Engineering Studies: Jour-
because grant agencies, academic depart- nal of the International Network for Engineer-
ments, publication outlets, and even profes- ing Studies. Morgan & Claypool began pub-
sional societies continued to place primary lishing the engineering studies series Global
emphasis on the terms “science” and “tech- Engineering in 2011. In 2012, the MIT Press
nology.” In many arenas in and around inter- began publishing the capstone book series
disciplinary science and technology stud- Engineering Studies.
ies (STS), including the societies holding INES emerged in the company of five
the joint meeting, engineers and engineering related initiatives in the humanistic and
were of interest to the extent that they shed social science study of engineers and engi-
light on practices of science and/or tech- neering. In Europe, an international collec-
nology but generally not in and of them- tion of historians began in 2002 organizing
selves.2 meetings and publications rethinking the
The work of building a networked arena history and current status of engineering
of research in engineering studies started formation and practice (Chatzis, 2007; de
with the premise that engineers and engi- Matos, Diogo, Gouzévitch, & Grelon, 2009;
neering can and should be analyzed as cen- Gouzevitch & Inkster, 2007). In the Society
tral rather than peripheral actors and prac- for the History of Technology (SHOT), his-
tices in worlds of science and technology. torians of engineering interested in reestab-
The International Network for Engineering lishing linkages to engineering education and
Studies (INES) was established in Paris in training established in 2005 the special inter-
2004 at the joint meeting of 4S and the Euro- est group Prometheans (Brown, Downey, &
pean Association for Studies of Science and Diogo, 2009).4 In 2006, philosophers affil-
Technology (EASST).3 Imagining a network iated with the Society for Philosophy of
whose participants had primary allegiances Technology began mapping out a philos-
in many different organizations, INES ophy of engineering and its relations to
would help advance research, teaching, the philosophy of technology in a series of
and outreach in historical, social, cultural, publications and workshops (Christensen,
Delahousse, & Meganck, 2007, 2009; van around the world regularly invoke such
de Poel & Goldberg, 2010). Scholar-activists connections as “benefit to humankind”
interested in engineering and social justice (National Academy of Engineering, 2004,
established a series of paper sessions, work- p. 1), “human development” (International
shops, and conferences beginning in 20045 ; Federation of Engineering Education Soci-
the Morgan & Claypool book series Engi- eties, 2010), “development of society” (Japan
neers, Society, and Technology in 20066 ; the Accreditation Board for Engineering Edu-
Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace net- cation, 2010), “economic and social devel-
work in 20107 ; and the International Jour- opment,” (Engineering for the Americas,
nal of Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace 2010), “match the social, economic, social,
in 2011.8 Finally, members of the Liberal technological needs of the today society
Education Division of the American Soci- [sic]” (European Society for Engineering
ety of Engineering Education responded to Education (SEFI), 2005, p. 5), “service of
new accreditation criteria for engineering mankind and the advancement of general
programs in 2000 with research and learn- welfare” (Indian Society for Technical Edu-
ing practices that would go beyond bring- cation, 2010), “collective well-being [bien-être
ing engineering students to liberal educa- collectif]” (Comité d’études sur les formations
tion and highlight the critical participation d’ingénieurs [CEFI], 2010), and “complex and
of liberal education practices within engi- interdependent global challenges” (Anderl
neering education (Neeley, 2003; Ollis, Nee- et al., 2006, p. 1).
ley, & Luegenbiehl, 2004; Steneck, Olds, The most prominent feature of these nor-
& Neeley, 2002). Acknowledging a signifi- mative projects is their holism. Engineer-
cant expansion of participation by members ing work contributes to human advance-
interested in critical participation within ment as a whole. The making of engineers
engineering education, division members in produces as its outcomes people who con-
2011 changed its name to the Liberal Educa- tribute to human advancement as a whole.
tion/Engineering & Society Division.9 As an inherent feature of technical engi-
Although many participants in these lat- neering practice, normative holism is a key
ter initiatives also contributed to the formal dimension of engineering learning.11
development of INES and engineering stud- The normative commitment to holism
ies, many also do not identify their scholar- in engineering formation has a crucial, far-
ship in the first instance with the label “engi- ranging implication. It grounds what Wendy
neering studies.” For the benefit of readers, Faulkner (2007) has called “technical-social
this review takes the risk of blurring some dualism,” the sharp division between the
of these boundaries in order to highlight technical contents of engineering work and
the question of normativity in engineering the social practices engineers participate in
formation. as people. Engineering curricula routinely
portray the core of engineering work as
wholly technical in content, especially the
Normative Holism in Engineering engineering sciences. Both as individuals and
Formation as a collectivity, engineers learn to encounter
and engage flows of experience as endless
Leaders in engineering formation around sources of technical problems to solve, seek-
the world have long portrayed the making optimal gain (Alder, 1997, p. 60) on
ing of engineers as contributing directly behalf of humanity as a whole.
to human progress.10 They have tended to Technical-social dualism has a number of
assert an equivalence between the technical correlates. One is that distinctions among
contents of engineering practices and mate- different fields and disciplines of engineer-
rial advancements throughout the world ing become functional technical differences
for human benefit. Official reports and that complement one another, for exam-
vision statements for engineering formation ple, among civil, mechanical, electrical, and
chemical engineering and among mechan- practices of engineering teaching and learn-
ics, circuit theory, thermodynamics, and ing might have been otherwise, could
vibrations (Gilbert, 2009). Although quan- become otherwise, and, hence, perhaps
titative material practices on the job may should be otherwise. Indeed, when one dili-
range from design to manufacturing to sales, gently pursues hard the questions – What is
technical learning provides the core prepara- engineering for? and What are engineers for?
tion for all of them. Also, engineering work (Downey, 2009) – a resolute and narrowly
becomes technological design. Until fairly defined commitment to normative holism
recently, engineers have been relatively free can appear at best delusional, at worst con-
to claim jurisdiction over the design and spiratorial, hiding other normativities. But
development of new technologies, without the key question remains, at least in this
competition from other knowledge work- review: What then?
ers (Wisnioski, 2012). This has made it easy At least three valuable areas of EER
for both engineers and non-engineers to research that overlap with engineering stud-
equate engineering with technology, fre- ies work on normativity in engineering for-
quently to the point of confusion. Engineers mation are covered in depth elsewhere in
design technologies, and the making of engi- this volume. One makes a case for mak-
neers is always about the making of tech- ing social justice issues, especially involving
nologists. Finally, because quality engineer- women and minorities, a pervasive consid-
ing work necessarily produces technological eration in engineering teaching and learn-
outcomes that benefit humanity, engineers ing and engineering education research (see
must be careful only to make sure noth- Chapter 17 by Riley, Slaton, & Pawley).12
ing interferes with the high-quality technical A second reviews the history of and pos-
practices they learned in school and in sub- sibilities for engineering ethics in engineer-
sequent training. ing curricula (Herkert & Barry, 2012). And
a third calls attention to global and inter-
national issues facing engineering students
Engineering Studies and and working engineers today (Johri, 2012).
Normative Holism To minimize duplication, I do not consider
these further here.13
Much work in engineering studies consists
of critical reactions to normative holism in
For a Profession?
engineering formation and practice, both
explicitly and implicitly. Most work calls A persistent and vexed issue has been the
attention to its limitations by demonstrating tendency of engineers to claim the status of
inconsistencies with actual features of engi- professionals. The claim itself makes sense.
neering formation and practice. It makes vis- Embracing human progress as a whole grants
ible complexes of socio-technical relation- the work of engineers a special kind of
ships that normative holism hides. autonomy that seems analogous to holistic
Also, because the makers of engineers service in the classical professions of law,
tend to rely on technical-social dualism medicine, and divinity. Professionals serve
in understanding and characterizing their the community as a whole. The difficulty
work, research that examines relationships with working engineers has been that they
between the technical and the nontechni- largely do not fit the image, raising difficult
cal dimensions of engineering practices nec- questions about building engineering forma-
essarily gains normative content. It gains tion around normative holism.
directionality in relation to the image and During the 1960s and 1970s, American
practices of normative holism. Even sim- sociologists struggled unsuccessfully to the-
ple descriptions of relationships between orize the professions in a way that would
technical and nontechnical agencies in engi- include engineers. The big problem was
neering formation raise the possibility that that engineers tended to work within large
organizations (Gerstl & Perrucci, 1969). The the status of gentlemen. Exploring the role
unpopularity of separate career ladders for of professional institutions in structuring
engineers in industry during the 1950s and formal engineering education, W. J. Reader
1960s, for example, affirmed that success (1987) examined the Institution for Electri-
for more elite engineers entailed success cal Engineers and Colin Divall and Sean
within the organization (Rothstein, 1968). Johnston (2000) the Institution of Chemical
And as recently as the mid-1950s, nearly Engineers.
one-tenth of the engineering labor force Historians have long questioned norma-
of 500,000 engineers was unionized, with tive holism in engineering formation pre-
organizational concerns emphasizing salary cisely by calling attention to the position-
levels and work conditions. For American ing of engineers within organizations. In
sociologists, examining engineers more the late nineteenth century United States,
closely actually contributed to a more gen- the most elite civil engineers did achieve
eral disciplinary shift to organization studies a public reputation for independent craft
(Downey et al., 1989, pp. 191–198). In 1985, genius bordering on heroic status (McCul-
Robert Zussman (1985) sought unsuccess- lough, 1972). Yet Daniel Calhoun (1960,
fully to revive sociological interest in engi- p. 199) found that even civil engineers on
neers by examining them through the lenses commission had almost always been super-
of career and class rather than profession. vised within and served the interests of gov-
The normative commitment of engineers to erning organizations. Indeed, Buchanan’s
career mobility by changing jobs, he argued, (1989, p. 11) extensive research on the for-
could be traced to their middle-class status. mation of professional engineers in Britain
But this move did not overcome the contin- forced him to admit, however, that they
uing problem of engineers claiming auton- “have always co-existed with a much larger
omy and normative holism in engineering number of non-professional engineers.”
education yet pursuing advancement within Edwin Layton’s Revolt of the Engineers
organizations. (1986) has become a classic study of a tension
Some historians of engineering have fol- between normative holism and localized
lowed the assertion that engineers serve commitments to the projects of employers.
humanity as a whole by examining the orga- Revolt traces the failed attempts of early
nization of professional societies and pro- twentieth-century civil engineers to posi-
fessional institutions and their recruiting tion themselves, their professional organi-
initiatives among students. Bruce Sinclair zations, and by extension practices of edu-
and J. P. Hull (1980) explored how the cation based on an image of autonomy and
American Society for Mechanical Engineer- social responsibility. The study identifies a
ing achieved organizational independence transitional process wherein the leaders of
worthy of a biography. Terry Reynolds professional engineering societies tended to
(1983) showed how the American Institute also be leaders in industry. Peter Meiksins
of Chemical Engineers played a key role (1988, p. 402) later showed that Layton’s
in defining and maintaining the discipline account of “patrician reformers” masked
of chemical engineering. And A. Michal struggles of the far more numerous rank-
McMahon (1984) combined an organiza- and-file engineers whose concerns were less
tional biography of the Institute of Elec- about professional recognition and auton-
trical and Electronics Engineers with an omy than a “more humane, comfortable
account of its role in shaping the develop- form of employment and a better chance
ment of electrical engineering, a discipline as individuals to rise through the ranks.”
born within corporate structures. In the Taking a lead from the engineers’ com-
United Kingdom, Angus Buchanan (1989) mitment to normative holism, applied
has both asserted the normative holism of philosophers have devoted enormous effort
engineering formation and recounted the to interrogating ethical tensions between
persistent struggles of engineers to achieve normative holism and organizational loyalty.
Early contributions explored engineers’ p. 500), was that engineers direct their “par-
rights and responsibilities as employees, ticular loyalties . . . to their employers and to
examined the role of ethics training in engi- organizational careers, rather than to their
neering curricula, and assessed formal codes colleagues.” In other words, an employee
of ethics. See Chapter 33 by Barry and orientation and organizational identity were
Herkert in this volume for elaboration and part of the novice’s original conception of
update. an engineering career and were both rein-
The bottom line is that engineering stud- forced and solidified by the socialization
ies scholarship on the whole has not sup- process.
ported the implication of normative holism If engineering service is routed through
that engineers are or should be treated as industrial organizations, then are engineer-
autonomous professionals. Most recently, ing students preparing to be servants of
Carroll Seron and Susan Silbey (2009) industrial corporations? David Noble (1977,
describe how despite engineering claims to pp. 47, 170, 322, 324) put the issue most
professional status, the accreditation process starkly in a classic Marxian study loaded
for engineering curricula enacts an “instru- with evidence about the emergence of engi-
mental logic” that restricts the discretionary neering formation in the United States. The
judgment characteristic of professions. The normative holism of engineering service was
focus becomes making sure engineering stu- essentially false consciousness, he argued,
dents achieve mastery in applying the instru- for engineering education served as “a major
mental logic. channel of corporate power” by providing
the “immediate manpower needs of indus-
try and the long-range requirements of con-
For Private Industry?
tinued corporate development.” Its output
That engineers in, especially, Anglo- was a “domesticated breed” that “convinced
American contexts have accepted private themselves that they served the interests of
industry in particular as the dominant venue society as a whole . . . [but] in reality served
for their work has been a primary source only the dominant class in society.”
of interest and concern for engineering The influence, if not control, of norma-
studies work on engineering formation.14 tive projects from private industry in engi-
Monte Calvert (1967) famously attributed neering formation remains a given in per-
the bonding of mechanical engineers to haps most engineering studies work today.
industrial organizations to a contingent shift Among initial reactions that complicated
in educational practices from “shop cul- the claim of dominance, Bernard Carl-
ture” to “school culture.” This shift greatly son’s (1988, p. 396) study of academic
expanded attention to formal education, entrepreneurship at MIT argued the cor-
especially at land-grant institutions. While poration “could not simply order entry-
mechanical engineers had been elite appren- level engineers from engineering schools”
tices preparing on the job for leadership and linkages to industry were “marked by
positions, they became tertiary-school grad- a clash of values and expectations.” Peter
uates prepared for entry-level positions and Meiksins and Chris Smith (1996, p. 253)
armed with a desire to move up. advanced a theory of “structural contin-
A 1960s survey of working engineers con- gency,” which starts with capitalist relations
cluded that recruits to engineering schools of production and then adds contingency,
generally came from lower social origins holding that “under capitalism engineers
than recruits into medicine, law, and the are shaped by and organized around the
clergy, and that upward social mobility was central contradictions of capitalism, but
a primary motivation for selecting an engi- that this in no way points to any eventual
neering career (LeBold, Perrucci, & How- convergence on a single way of organiz-
land, 1966). A “consequence of this mobility ing technical labor.” Also Gary Downey’s
experience,” argued Robert Perrucci (1971, (1998) study of education and research in
computer-aided design documented norma- globalization of engineering work and rise

tive tensions among academic, governmen- of information and communication tech-
tal, and corporate projects. nologies is marginalizing purely technical
Studies of engineering formation in work.
Britain have had to confront the issues of
employer scorn for formal engineering edu-
For Technology Through Design?
cation and relative disinterest by govern-
ment. A whole body of literature debates the An integral component of the engineer’s
extent to which British industrial decline in commitment to normative holism is that
the late nineteenth century can be attributed engineering education consists primarily of
to an overemphasis on craft training for students learning the engineering sciences
engineers and their attendant low status in order to be able to design technologies.
(Edgerton, 1996; Sanderson, 1999; Wiener, The flow is linear and the emphasis is tech-
1981). Colin Divall (1990) showed how nical. Much engineering studies scholarship
industrial employers during the early has problematized this flow by complicating
decades of the twentieth century found each step.
higher education in engineering forced upon Philosophers of technology have wres-
them, while Chris Smith (1987) docu- tled with the relationship between epis-
mented tensions between engineering staff temic content and normative holism in the
and senior management. In contrast with the engineering sciences at least since the 1966
assertion of corporate control, Peter Whal- debate among Mario Bunge, Joseph Agassi,
ley (1986) characterized engineering forma- and Henryk Skolimowski over how to ana-
tion as the preparation of “trusted workers” lyze the relationship between applied sci-
who manage dual commitments inside and ence and technology. Searching for epis-
outside the organization. temic categories freed from context, Bunge
The many official assertions in recent (1966) drew a sharp line between pure
years that practices of engineering forma- and applied science and Agassi (1966)
tion have actually fallen out of step with between applied science and technology.
the expectations and desires of industrial Skolimowski (1966) began to introduce the
employers has produced a surge of engineer- question of normativity by drawing his line
ing studies scholarship on engineering work, between science and social practice. If engi-
with implications for engineering formation. neering theory is linked to social practice,
Kevin Anderson and colleagues (Ander- then engineering work is always linked in
son, Courter, McGlamery, Nathans-Kelly, some way to broader material projects.
& Nicometo (2010) document how engi- One outcome was the rise of a social phi-
neers carry technical-social dualism onto losophy of engineering, which has tended
the job, expressing a primary interest in to analyze engineering formation work from
solving technical problems and frustrated epistemics to normativity, and under the
by responsibilities for what they con- auspices of the Society for Philosophy of
sider to be non-engineering work. Gian Technology. Early contributions theorized
Marco Campagnolo and Giolo Fele (2010) preparation for a “meaning community”
describe how vagueness can be crucial with “inner subdivisions, structures and
to the distribution of engineering soft- functions” (Durbin, 1985); the development
ware. Julie Gainsburg, Carlos Rodriguez- of, professional competence (and incom-
Lluesma, and Diane Bailey (2010) describe petence) (Sinclair & Tilston, 1982);, pro-
how workplace knowledge in an engineer- duction of a “technological intelligentsia”
ing occupation derived more from on- whose success depended on a wide range
the-job experience than from prior formal of social, ethical, and epistemological cri-
education. And both Bernard Delahousse teria (Lenk, 1984); propagation of “captive
(2007) and Rudi Schmiede and Mascha knowledge” organized in pursuit of man-
Will-Zocholl (2011) describe how the agerial goals” (Goldman, 1984); and the
development of curricula to serve an “occu- students learn as simultaneously epistemic,

pation” (Davis, 1996). ethical, and aesthetic in content. Michael
Questioning the linear thread led Davis (2010) points out that engineers do
researchers to also examine normativities in many things beyond design that have sig-
engineering design. Walter Vincenti (1990) nificant technical content, for example,
laid down a challenge by seeking to identify inspecting, writing regulations, and evaluat-
universal, context-free categories of design ing patents. Eugene Coyle, Mike Murphy,
knowledge that fit an overarching commit- and William Grimson (2007) characterize
ment to normative holism. These included engineering design as poly-paradigmatic in
fundamental design concepts, criteria and the sense that it is often a balancing act
specifications, theoretical tools, quantitative among financial, environmental, aesthetical,
data, practical considerations, and design and sociological commitments.
instrumentalities. Larry Bucciarelli (1994) Finally, engineering studies researchers
took a step toward highlighting normative have examined some unforeseen implica-
differences by showing that contrasts in tions of committing engineering formation
engineering design work exceed pure func- to normative holism. Matthew Wisnioski
tional differentiation. Designers work, he (2009b, 2012) shows how identifying engi-
argued, in different “object worlds,” each of neering formation with technology pro-
which comes with distinct epistemological duced a crisis in elite engineering circles
and material commitments. Ibo van de Poel during the 1960s when technology itself
and A.C. van Gorp (2006) and Wade Robi- lost its assumed link with progress. A fre-
son (2010) extend this work by showing that quent outcome was awkward attempts to
ambiguity in design judgments means that appropriate modes of thought and analy-
ethical judgment is necessarily an integral sis from the humanities and social sciences.
part. Gary Downey (1998) follows the struggles
Michel Callon (1980) and other actor- of engineering students learning practices
network theorists have examined design of computer-aided design as they come to
practices as themselves the sources of realize they cannot control the technology
broader material projects. He joined with but must also yield to it. Indeed, Wilhelm
John Law (Law & Callon, 1988) to por- Bomke (2009) shows that some instruc-
tray engineering formation as the making tors and employers still resist its use. Jose
of “engineer-sociologists” who are “not just Avila and Manuel Arias (2007) and Alessan-
people who sit in drawing offices and design dro Gasparetto (2007) maintain that the
machines” but are “social activists” who technical-social dualism in normative holism
design structures or social institutions to fit has led to a decline in the public perception
the machines.” Dominique Vinck and col- of engineers across European countries. And
leagues (Vinck, 2011; Vinck & Blanco, 2003) Rosalind Williams (2002) has argued that
dive deeply into engineering design practices attempting to produce increasingly diverse
to show how they effectively organize things technologies is multiplying subfields in engi-
and people at the same time. neering and producing an “expansive dis-
Recent work has tended to demonstrate integration” of engineering research and
the multiplicity or complexity of consider- teaching.
ations in engineering judgments involving
engineering science, design, and technology.
For the Nation, the State, the Country?
Maarten Ottens (2010) shows that even sup-
posedly comprehensive systems engineer- In 1990, German historian Peter Lundgreen
ing depends on limiting assumptions that greatly complicated studies of the norma-
exclude key social considerations, e.g., the tive projects in engineering formation by
perspectives of users and significance of resisting the image of the contents of engi-
variable legislation. Arto Mutanen (2007) neering education responding to the needs
describes the engineering methodology that or demands of private industry. Comparing
the emergence of formal engineering educa- Andreas Knie describe German and French
tion in France and Germany with that in diesel engineers in the early twentieth
Britain and the United States, Lundgreen century as developing distinct engineering
(1990, p. 45) highlighted the fact that French “styles,” with Germans actively codifying
engineers since the mid-eighteenth century an engineering grammar of design and the
had been committed to formation through French actively avoiding doing so, con-
schools and to work in government. Also, centrating their attention on copying and
the “driving forces” behind the emergence preparing designs from other locations.
of engineering education across Germany Comparing U.S. and Japanese approaches to
could “scarcely be attributed to the ris- teaching and practicing design, Joel Moses
ing needs of the job market in the private (2010) describes design practices as deeply
sector.” Emphasizing the paramount role embedded in national cultures.
played by the state in continental technical Perhaps the most common form of anal-
education, Lundgreen argued for a focus on ysis is to recount the relation between engi-
the practices of supply, taking care to distin- neering formation and the state or the rel-
guish between the qualification of engineers ative role of the state in both institutional
and their commitments at work. and curricular developments in engineer-
Enormous bodies of work now exist on ing education. Providing an overview would
the histories of engineering formation across warrant at least another complete review,
different countries, often written in English if not more. Consider some starting points
or French as well as in languages of origin. in France, for example. Antoine Picon (1992,
Detailing what Antoine Picon (2007) calls 2007, 2009) describes how formation of engi-
“local specificities,” these works map con- neers became distinct from that of archi-
trasting emphases on formal schoolwork and tects in the eighteenth century, acquiring
on-the-job training and in degrees of par- quasi-judicial authority as they pursue tech-
ticipation by governments at various levels. nocratic ideals. Bruno Belhoste and Kon-
One outcome has been to integrate histories stantinos Chatzis (2007) review the prepa-
of engineering formation with histories of ration of state engineers in the nineteenth
the development of nations, states, and/or century and Chatzis (2009) examines the
countries. multiplication of small schools. And André
One approach has been to describe terri- Grelon (1986, 1993, 2007) has focused his
torial patterns in engineering formation and attention on mapping relations and differ-
engineering work as engineering cultures. ences between state engineers and prepara-
Eda Kranakis (1997), for example, com- tion of the much larger population of engi-
pares the emergence of what she described neers who have worked in the private sec-
as engineering cultures in France and the tor. Recent work by Continental historians
United States, including both educational has examined the travels of “models” of for-
properties and design practices. She char- mation, the role of key “reference schools,”
acterizes these as the contingent product and the distinctive normativities of schools
of distinct “social and institutional fac- on the European “periphery” in efforts to
tors” that happened to appear in the two theorize “appropriation,” “circulation,” and
countries, which then gained the force of “transnationality” (de Matos et al., 2009).
influence through their persistence. John Such concerns have extended worldwide.
Brown (2000) details differences in the nine- This review has itself been informed by an
teenth century drawing practices of British approach that critiques normative holism in
and American engineers as, again, exam- engineering formation not by mapping what
ples of distinct engineering cultures.” In it hides but by demonstrating its multiplic-
this case, both the “applications of plans ity. That is, what has counted as progress
(and the drawings themselves) came to or human advancement has varied dramat-
reflect and reinforce their host cultures.” ically across territories and over time. This
In a related approach, Mikael Hård and approach began with an analysis of struggles
in teaching and learning computer-aided up new or altered images and practices

design in the United States in response to in the making of engineers. Likely a com-
economic competitiveness as a newly dom- mon feature of different approaches is to
inant image of progress (Downey, 1998). help make critical reflection on normative
It was further developed in a compara- commitments an integral part of engineering
tive overview of engineering formation and education and training. A key implication of
“metrics of progress” (Downey & Lucena, this essay is that likely an essential compo-
2004); a history of U.S. governmental poli- nent in any such effort is to integrate prac-
cies for science and engineering education tices for making visible and critically analyz-
in relation to images of a “nation under ing the dominant commitment to normative
threat” (J. Lucena, 2005); case examples of holism – the equivalence drawn between
the United States (Downey, 2007), Mex- technical engineering work and the produc-
ico (J. C. Lucena, 2007), Brazil (J. Lucena, tion of benefits for humanity as a whole.
2009), and Colombia (Valderrama et al., What possibilities for grounding this ini-
2009); and a theoretical overview (Downey, tial step lie in different approaches to
2012b). examining normative projects in engineer-
ing formation? And how deeply into formal
engineering education and informal engi-
Scaling Up Engineering Studies neering training are potential alternative
into Engineering Education practices of critical reflection likely to reach?
The opportunities and limitations vary with
what studies take as their objects of study
In parallel with what I have analyzed here
and how they frame their questions.
as normative holism in engineering forma-
tion, Byron Newberry (2009, p. 40) points to
“an axiomatic presumption, perhaps instinc- engineering profession
tive to many engineers, that their work is
Research taking the engineering profession
organically beneficent, at least in a utilitarian
as its object of analysis may find it diffi-
sense.” Many engineers, he continues, tend
cult to achieve deep inroads in engineer-
to judge engineering work to operate “like
ing formation. On the one hand, such work
a Smithian invisible hand that inexorably
allies itself with normative holism by chal-
promotes the collective benefit.” If norma-
lenging practitioners to rise above localized
tive holism remains invisible as a given in
considerations, especially as employees, and
the making of engineers, then engineers will
focus attention and energy on problems and
have no reason to reflect critically either on
issues facing humanity as a whole. It points
their commitments or on the outcomes of
researchers in the direction of supporting
their work. Yet an enormous body of engi-
or helping to create courses, curricula, and
neering studies work calls attention to mul-
institutions devoted to addressing and solv-
tiple normativities in both engineering for-
ing planetary problems, such as poverty,
mation and engineering work.
water supply, energy supply and usage, cli-
This review raises the possibility of scal-
mate change, and so forth. When done effec-
ing up findings from engineering studies
tively, critical participation that emphasizes
into pathways for critical participation in
responsibilities to humanity as a whole can
the making of engineers. It calls attention
help students recognize and reflect on nor-
to flows of images and practices originating
mative commitments implicitly built into
from one or both of two distinct categories
existing curricula, for example, that a key
of sources.
future responsibility will be to support the
private interests of an industrial employer.
Scaling Up Findings
On the other hand, critically assessing
One source is engineering studies scholars engineering practice in relation to an image
who draw on their findings to help scale of the profession, whether explicitly or
implicitly, may limit the ability of curricular education and training make clear that serv-
interventions to move beyond the periphery ing industrial needs is but one normative
of the new course, specialized track, or vol- project. Another possible approach might
untary membership organization. The image be to hold that the humanist assumption in
of a profession serving humanity as a whole the labor theory of value insufficiently con-
does not fit too much of what engineers siders technological agencies in industrial
actually do. production. Such would make the alienation
of labor a variable phenomenon the extent
of which would depend upon actual wage
private industry rates. In any case, Noble’s thorough and con-
Taking the relationship between engineer- sistent analysis continues to throw down a
ing formation and private industry as one’s gauntlet that any scholarly inquiry into the
primary object of study has different impli- making of engineers or any effort to build
cations depending upon how one theorizes practices of critical reflection into engineer-
the relationship. Much of the resistance that ing formation ignores at its peril.
emerged over the years to David Noble’s
argument that engineers are a “domesticated
breed” designed to serve only the domi- nation, state, country
nant class lies in his analysis that capital- Approaches to engineering formation and
ism is a singular, pervasive structure with the nation, state, or country introduce dis-
dominating agencies that invariably produce tinct opportunities with distinct limitations
the exploitation of labor by capital. His depending on how the analysis conceives the
interpretation renders spurious any efforts relationship. A significant strength in identi-
to build practices of critical reflection into fying patterns in engineering education and
engineering formation except through a rev- training as distinct cultures, for example,
olutionary movement that would transform is that such locates the technical contents
engineers into an entirely different breed of engineering formation in the same ana-
altogether, not to mention all of social lytical (and ontological) category as prac-
life as well. It effectively accepts resolute tices of governmental action, political econ-
pessimism. omy, educational innovation, activities, of
Most alternative approaches to the study work, and so forth. They all become cultural
of engineering formation in relation to pri- phenomena.
vate industry maintain that responsibilities A key limitation lies in the same point.
to employers constitute one source of nor- The project of normative holism already has
mative projects, or one collection of sources, a place for culture in engineering practices.
among many. Carlson’s (1988) analysis It serves as a cover label for everything that
of academic entrepreneurship, Anderson is not technical, that is, not authentically
at al.’s (2010) analysis of tension between engineering. Cultural phenomena that live
authentic engineering and non-engineering on the margins may be of great interest to
projects, and Downey’s (1998) analysis of the makers of engineers, especially in an
tensions among industrial, academic, and era of globalization (Downey, 2011), but it
governmental projects in developing and is therefore difficult for that very reason to
teaching computer-aided design point in persuade engineers that the technical con-
this direction. Adopting an alternative to tents of engineering work are cultural phe-
Noble’s analysis ultimately requires ques- nomena as well. Such could appear remove
tioning the Marxian labor theory of value the technical rigor from engineering judg-
that grounds it. ment that normative holism authorizes and
One approach is that articulated by values. Focusing on culture could prove to
Lundgreen (1990), holding that the vari- throw up a barrier to significant cultural
able role of governments in engineering participation.
engineering in context delineation of the distinct object worlds that

The burgeoning of studies of the role of different fields of engineering postulate, the
the state in engineering formation, often in makers of engineers could teach every engi-
relation to the role of the private sector, neering science and/or every engineering
introduces opportunities for critically par- practice as a normative project that makes
ticipating in engineering formation through some things visible and doable while hiding
the image of engineering “in context.” This others (Downey, 2005).
approach is becoming increasingly popu- A limitation in this approach is that it is
lar among engineering studies scholars. It not obvious how critical pedagogy of this
is relatively straightforward, for example, sort would actually make it to the heart
to demonstrate to would-be engineers that of instruction in the engineering sciences.
they will have to participate in a variety Although it does at least envision a pathway
of social contexts, including relations with to this core of practices of engineering for-
employers, fellow employees, clients, pro- mation, persuading engineering instructors
fessional associations, standards organiza- to actually travel that pathway to revising
tions, regulatory bodies, and so on. And what they do may also require something
making visible such contexts can help stu- akin to a mass social movement in engineer-
dents recognize that technical problem solving instruction.
ing will be only part of what they do and that
they would do well to prepare for participa-
Appropriating Findings
tion in a variety of contexts.
A limitation in this approach parallels A second category of sources for scaling up
that of analyzing engineering as a cultural findings from engineering studies into path-
phenomenon. It leaves relatively untouched ways for critical participation in the making
the technical-social dualism that normative of engineers is other engineering education
holism defines and supports. The word “con- researchers. EER scholars who read engi-
text” comes to refer to everything that does neering studies could appropriate and inte-
not have to do with the linear flow of tech- grate it into the practices that emerge from
nical engineering practices from engineer- their own research. Such could be accom-
ing science to technology through design. plished in one of two ways.
It does not take account of the fact that in The first is for EER scholars to make vis-
taking normative holism and its associated ible and examine how they might be build-
technical-social dualism for granted, engi- ing normative contents into the process of
neers already routinely “contextualize them- constructing proposals. A multitude of pos-
selves,” as Wisnioski (2009a) puts it. sibilities lie here. Might it be the case, for
example, that particular efforts to expand
design education in engineering assume that
multiplying normative holisms the desired goal is consumer products from
The scholarly approach demonstrating that the private sector? What are the norma-
normative holism in engineering formation tive implications of such commitments?
is not singular but multiple has the strength What might be the normative implications
of telling the makers of engineers not that across engineering curricula of integrating
they are wrong in some way but that what new attention to issues such as interdisci-
they take for granted is in an important plinarity, nanoscale technologies, or climate
sense highly localized. It encourages engi- change research? Might all makers of engi-
neering educators, in the first instance, to neers, including contemporary innovators,
re-characterize as localized knowledge prac- be attempting what the STS scholar Sheila
tices they currently teach accepted by all Jasanoff (1996, 2004) calls “co-producing” the
good engineers everywhere. A longer-term technical and normative contents of engi-
possibility is that, akin to Bucciarelli’s (1994) neering formation at the same time?
The other way of appropriating findings under award no. DUE-1022898. Any opin-
from engineering studies research is to study ions, findings, and conclusions or recom-
the normative struggles of students as they mendations expressed in this publication are
confront engineering curricula. Every exist- those of the author and do not necessar-
ing practice and proposed innovation in the ily reflect the views of the National Science
making of engineers raises normative ques- Foundation. I greatly appreciate the three
tions around student identities. The greatest thorough and extremely helpful anonymous
amount of existing research in this respect reviews I received on the original manuscript
has focused on how the sex or gender of and a first revision. Thank you for reading so
students affects the types of challenges they closely and thoughtfully. I also appreciate
experience in becoming engineers and how the initial invitation and helpful guidance
they might respond to those challenges. But from the handbook’s editors, Aditya Johri
in principle any dimension of student iden- and Barbara Olds.
tity could be engaged by any effort to scale
up new practices in engineering education
and training. EER scholars must be sensitive Footnotes
to the normative dimensions of students’
multiple identities as those students pursue 1. Thanks to Larry Bucciarelli, emeritus MIT
pathways toward becoming engineers. professor, for calling my attention to this quo-
In his 1954 novel The New Men, C. P. tation.
Snow blurred the two cultures of science 2. My own account of this tendency is that STS
and the humanities when he characterized work has gained and retained broader legit-
engineers. “[E]ngineers,” he wrote, “ . . . were imacy by highlighting and calling attention
in nine cases out of ten . . . acceptant of any to limitations in dominant everyday images
regime in which they found themselves” (p. of science and technology. Attempts to scale
up new images of science and technology
176).15 Albeit fiction, this characterization of
tended not to include highlighting the rela-
engineers still stands out because it likely
tively devalued arenas of engineering and the
strikes the vast majority of readers as true. applied sciences. See Downey (2009) for elab-
The key question it raises is: Why? oration. The contemporary shift to what Gib-
If engineers are bred to be wholly domes- bons et al. (1994) called “Mode 2” science is an
ticated agents of powerful external forces, important factor changing this.
engineers are weak and their acceptance of 3. www.inesweb.org. The founding INES coor-
the regime in which they find themselves is dinators include Gary Downey, Alumni Dis-
a kind of surrender. From this point of view, tinguished Professor, Department of Science
it makes little sense for critical scholars to and Technology in Society, Virginia Tech,
go beyond critique to seek critical participa- USA; Maria Paula Diogo, Associate Profes-
tion. They will be co-opted. But the situa- sor, Department of History, New Univer-
tion changes, however, if engineers are in a sity of Lisbon, Portugal; and Chyuan Yuan
Wu, Director, Institute of Sociology and
regime because they accept it, because they,
Program in Science, Technology and Soci-
as Snow continues, are mainly “interested
ety, National Tsing Hua University, Tai-
in making their machine work” and perhaps wan. Atsushi Akera, Associate Professor,
find regimes that facilitate that end. In that Department of Science and Technology Stud-
case, reason does exist to interrogate the nor- ies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
mative projects in that acceptance and their became a coordinator in 2011. The founding
implications for the making of engineers. INES Web Editor is Brent Jesiek, Assistant
Professor, School of Engineering Education
and School of Electrical and Computer Engi-
Acknowledgments neering, Purdue University.
4. www.historyoftechnology.org/sigs.html.
The research reported here is based on work 5. http://esjp.org/esjp-conference.
supported by National Science Foundation 6. www.morganclaypool.com/toc/ets/1/1.
7. http://esjp.org. Alder, K. (1997). Engineering the revolution: Arms

8. http://esjp.org/journal. and enlightenment in France, 1763–1815. Prince-
9. www.asee.org/member-resources/groups/ ton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
divisions. Anderl, R., Gong, K., Cai Li, N, Kamin-
10. This section draws on (Downey, 2012a, 2012b). ski, P., Netto, M., Kimura, F., . . . Widdig, B.
(2006). In search of global engineering excellence:
11. Thanks to the reviewer who argued that the
Educating the next generation of engineers for the
term “holism” typically “evokes a kind of com-
global workplace. Hanover, Germany: Conti-
pleteness in which nothing has been glossed
nental AG.
over or left out, that is simultaneously atten-
tive to the particular and the whole, to the Anderson, K., Courter, S. S., McGlamery, T.,
local and the global.” I am using the term Nathans-Kelly, T., & Nicometo, C. G. (2010).
in a commonly used sense that the whole is Understanding engineering work and identity:
greater than or has an existence other than A cross-case analysis of engineers within six
the sum of its parts. I considered using the firms. Engineering Studies, 2(3), 153–174.
term “(w)holism” to label this usage but ulti- Avila, J. C., & Arias, M. J. (2007). Current prob-
mately decided against it after receiving com- lems in engineering historically rooted in the
ments from philosophers of engineering who search for status as a profession. In S. H. Chris-
find the existing usage not only acceptable but tensen, B. Delahousse, & M. Meganck (Eds.),
also accurately evocative. Philosophy in engineering (pp. 369–390). Copen-
12. I would like to call particular attention to hagen: Academica.
Cech & Waidzunas (2011), Faulkner (2007, Belhoste, B., & Chatzis, K. (2007). From techni-
2009), Fujino (1963), Slaton (2010), and Tonso cal corps to technocratic power: French state
(2007). engineers and their professional and cultural
13. Thanks to the reviewer who noted that this universe in the first-half of the 19th century.
chapter focuses primarily on North Ameri- History and Technology, 23(3), 209–225.
can and European perspectives. I do want Bomke, W. (2009). A historical perspective of
to acknowledge the rapidly growing litera- engineering design. In S. Hyldgaard Chris-
tures in engineering studies in other parts tensen, B. Delahousse, & M. Meganck (Eds.),
of the world, especially Latin America and Engineering in context (pp. 245–262). Aarhus,
East and South Asia, which have bear- Denmark: Academica.
ing on the making of engineers in and Borrego, M. (2007). Development of engineer-
beyond those regions. Complex colonial and ing education as a rigorous discipline: A study
postcolonial histories, as well as engage- of the publication patterns of four coalitions.
ments with Marxist/Leninist/Maoist political Journal of Engineering Education, 96(1), 5–18.
philosophies and Eastern political and social Brown, J. K. (2000). Design plans, working draw-
philosophies, just for starters, all present the ing, national styles. Technology and Culture, 41,
makers of engineers with normative chal- 195–238.
lenges. Although undertaking some of this
work myself, I am not yet competent to offer Brown, J. K., Downey, G. L., & Diogo, M. P.
anything approaching a reasonable review (2009). The normativities of engineers: Engi-
of the normativities in such experiences. neering education and history of technology.
Sorry. Technology and Culture, 50(4), 737–752.
14. Some text in this section draws from Bucciarelli, L. L. (1994). Designing engineers.
(Downey, 2012b). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
15. Thanks to Matthew Wisnioski for calling this Buchanan, R. A. (1989). The engineers: A history
quotation to my attention. of the engineering profession in Britain 1750–1914.
London: Jessica Kingsley.
Bunge, M. (1966, Summer). Technology as
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CHAPTER 34

The Normative Contents of

Gary Lee Downey

Introduction assumption that engineering educators are

computer-aided design documented norma- globalization of engineering work and rise

development of curricula to serve an “occu- students learn as simultaneously epistemic,

in teaching and learning computer-aided up new or altered images and practices

engineering in context delineation of the distinct object worlds that

7. http://esjp.org. Alder, K. (1997). Engineering the revolution: Arms

Kranakis, E. (1997). Constructing a bridge: An Moses, J. (2010). Architecting engineering sys-

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