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Social, Technical... and Environmental?: Addressing Environmental Entanglements as a Part of Engineering Education

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Sociotechnical Thinking I: Classroom Experiences, Identity, and Theory

Tagged Division

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37720

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37720

Download Count

260

Paper Authors

biography

Elizabeth A. Reddy Colorado School of Mines

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Elizabeth Reddy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering, Design and Society at Colorado School of Mines. She is a social scientist, holding a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of California at Irvine.

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Shannon Davies Mancus Colorado School of Mines

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Abstract

Work in Progress Social, Technical... Environmental?: Addressing Environmental Entanglements as a Part of Engineering Education

Training students to be sensitive to the entanglements of technologies and social life has been an important move for engineering educators interested in advancing generative critiques of engineering, connecting to student values, and framing new perspectives about what engineering can be. However, scholarship in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Environmental Humanities makes the case that engineering is more than sociotechnical. Environmental conditions, forces, and agents are critical to consider in relation to technologies, too.

In this paper, we suggest that introducing students to engineering as a social, technical, and environmental activity has productive implications. Here, we outline two main areas of pertinent theory. We group these areas into systems theories and material vibrancy and enchantment theories. For each of these, we 1) offer a synopsis of the insights, key texts, and implications and 2) show the utility of the approach to advance important pedagogical goals specifically related to socially responsible engineering practices in engineering education.

Reddy, E. A., & Mancus, S. D. (2021, July), Social, Technical... and Environmental?: Addressing Environmental Entanglements as a Part of Engineering Education Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37720

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