Engineering Dissent: Moving Political Engagement for Social Justice from the Vanguard into the Mainstream of the Engineering Profession

工程师设计的项目可以改善社会公平(例如，通过向弱势社区提供清洁水)，同时塑造造成不公正的基础设施(例如，通过使整个人口流离失所的大坝)。纵观现代工程行业的历史，一小群工程师一直在为社会正义问题而战。这些工程师扮演着激进者、改革者或倡导者的角色，因为他们努力引导自己职业的方向。与他们的同龄人--该行业的大多数领导人和成员--不同，这些社会正义事业的捍卫者是“持不同政见者”。他们挑战了工程实践的现状。如今，更多的工科学生和年轻专业人士带着对社会正义的关注进入了这个领域。然而，许多人毕业后进入了一个并不像他们希望的那样参与政治的职业行列。这个项目的动机是越来越多的工程师希望看到他们的专业更深入地参与社会正义工作。研究人员旨在通过以下方式加强社会正义在工程学中的作用：(A)绘制社会正义在专业文化中的演变图，然后(B)与工程学生团体和专业成员社会分享(有效的倡导渠道)发现。本研究的目标是研究一支先锋工程师围绕社会正义问题的政治参与，并调查他们的异议--无论是表现为激进主义、倡导、抗议或改革--如何塑造他们的职业文化。该项目利用职业和社会运动理论以及组织理论来调查(A)工程专业将围绕社会正义问题的政治参与制度化(或边缘化)的机制；以及(B)如何调动持不同政见者的言论，使工程专业具有围绕社会正义问题的政治意识。这些问题将使用研究职业文化的整体方法来解决，其中包括：通过分析传统和社交媒体中的非正式和正式文本，对围绕社会正义工作的先锋和主流话语进行定量和定性分析；对职业事件进行深入的民族志观察，在这些事件中，工程师的社会化使不同政见者的做法和话语在职业文化形成中的作用显而易见；以及对工程异议人士进行深入的、半结构化的采访--无论他们担任活动家、改革者、先锋或其他政治抗议职位的角色。这项研究的结果及其研究结果的传播将使人们看到各种形式的工程异议，目的是将社会正义带入该专业的主流。

Engineers design projects that improve social equity (by, for example, bringing clean water to disadvantaged communities) while simultaneously shaping infrastructure that causes injustice (through, for example, dams that displace entire populations). Throughout the history of the modern engineering profession, small groups of engineers have fought for social justice issues. These engineers took on the roles of activist, reformer, or advocate as they struggled to steer the direction of their profession. In contrast to their peers - the majority of the leaders and members of the profession - these champions of social justice causes were "dissenters". They challenged the status quo of engineering practice. Today, more engineering students and young professionals enter the field with a concern for social justice. Yet many graduate into the ranks of a profession that is not as politically engaged as they hoped. This project is motivated by the desire of a growing number of engineers to see their profession more deeply engaged in social justice work. The investigators aim to strengthen the role of social justice in engineering by, (a) mapping the evolution of social justice in the culture of the profession, and then (b) sharing the findings (of effective channels of advocacy) with engineering student groups and professional member societies.The objective of this research is to study political engagement around social justice issues by a vanguard of engineers and to investigate how their dissent - be it expressed as activism, advocacy, protest, or reform - shapes the culture of their profession. The project engages theories of professions and social movements along with organizational theory to investigate (a) the mechanisms through which the engineering profession institutionalizes (or marginalizes) political engagement around social justice issues; and (b) ways the discourse of dissent are mobilized in bringing political consciousness around social justice issues to the engineering profession. These questions will be addressed using a holistic methodology for studying professional culture that comprises: quantitative and qualitative analysis of vanguard and mainstream discourses around social justice work, by analyzing informal and formal texts, in traditional and social media; in-depth, ethnographic observations of professional events where the socialization of engineers makes visible the role of practices and discourses of dissent in professional culture formation; and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with engineering dissenters - whether they occupy roles of activist, reformer, vanguard, or other positions of political protest. The results of this research and the dissemination of its findings will make visible the myriad forms of engineering dissent with the aim of bringing social justice into the mainstream of the profession.