The Humanitarian Engineering Possibility

Carl Mitcham ( with Juan Lucena, Jon Leydens, Jen Schneider, et al.)

Introduction

 The humanities and the social sciences can contribute to engineering, ethics, and practice  But such contributions have been attenuated in part because of weaknesses in the humanities and social sciences — toward humanitarian engineering

Apologies

 Operating here with intuitions more than fully developed arguments  Relying a great deal on collaborations  Two points followed by a report on a curriculum initiative

Point #1

 Engineering as a profession is subordinate to external rather than internal values  “Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man.” (Thomas Tredgold, 1828)

Point #1 (continued)

 From “use and convenience”  To “public safety, health, and welfare” — But in definitions provided by non engineers, members of the medical profession, or economists

Point #2

 Humanitarianism involves critical reflection on convenience and use or public safety, health, and welfare  Indeed, humanitarianism and engineering share parallel histories

1. Originating Institutionalization, 1850s-early 1900s — Nursing — The Battle of Solferino (1859) and creation the Red Cross / Red Crescent (1864) — ICRC seeks to “humanize war”

2. Humanitarianism in World Wars, 1914-1945 — World War I (1914-1918) — Herbert Hoover (1874-1962): Engineering relief work — Emergence of humanitarian NGOs — World War II (1939-1945), from ICRC and Holocaust to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

3. Humanitarianism and Development as Free World Ideology, 1945-1969

— Marshall Plan — Truman’s point four program — UN — OECD — Peace Corps

4. Institutional Transformations, 1969-2001 — Nigerian Civil War / Biafra (1969) — Founding of “Médecins sans Frontieres” (MSF or Doctors without Borders) in 1971 — Early 1990s: Engineers Without Borders — Fred Cuny (1944-1995): From Biafra to Chechnya — Paul Farmer (1959-present) — 1990s: “Humanitarian war”

5. Challenges of Success and Terrorism, 2001-present — David Rieff,

A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis

(2002) — David Kennedy,

The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism

(2004)

Connection and Application

 Humanitarian Engineering: Ethics, Theory, Practices (Spring 2007)  Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (Spring 2008)

Comments

 Both courses were intensively team-taught, interdisciplinary, and involved exceptional preparatory work and collaboration.

 Engineering practice makes assumptions about the beneficence of engineering that deserve critical examination —to which the humanitarian movement can contribute.

Comments (continued)

 Engineers can make crucial contributions to humanitarian relief efforts — especially if engineers become self-critical about what it means to be an engineer.

 The humanitarian engineering possibility may be able to help address the pipeline problems.

Comments (continued)

 The humanitarian engineering possibility is simply one more expression of increasing efforts to broaden and transform engineering.

Conclusion

“We aspire to a future where engineers are prepared to adapt to changes in global forces and trends and to

ethically assist the world

in creating a balance in the standards of living for developing and developed countries alike.” —

The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century

(2004) p. 51, emphasis added).