The Unbalanced Equation: Technical Opportunities and Social Barriers in the NAE Grand Challenges and Beyond

摘要: The US National Academy of Engineering’s 2008 report, Grand Challenges for Engineering , puts forward a provocative vision future civilization and engineering’s role in it. Notably, the report signals trend engineering toward more explicit direct engagement with enduring, complex social problems, offering intriguing opportunities exploring relationship between questions justice. This paper makes one such exploration by analyzing report’s framings engineering-for-social-problem-solving implicit assumptions underlying framings. It shows how frames non-technical factors as external to—and often barriers for—engineering. In contrast, technical challenges, even immense ones, are framed wholly within dominion both human whole. argues that contemporary tensions profession it seeks an expansive domain influence relevance while at same time narrowly circumscribing what engineers should be accountable knowing doing.