Engineers for Change

Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America

Matthew Wisnioski (Associate Professor, Virginia Tech)

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English

MIT Press
02 September 2016

Ethical issues: scientific & technological developments; Intermediate technology; History of engineering & technology

Series: Engineering Studies

An account of conflicts within engineering in the 1960s that helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history.

In the late 1960s an eclectic group of engineers joined the antiwar and civil rights activists of the time in agitating for change. The engineers were fighting to remake their profession, challenging their fellow engineers to embrace a more humane vision of technology. In Engineers for Change, Matthew Wisnioski offers an account of this conflict within engineering, linking it to deep-seated assumptions about technology and American life.

The postwar period in America saw a near-utopian belief in technology's beneficence. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, society-influenced by the antitechnology writings of such thinkers as Jacques Ellul and Lewis Mumford-began to view technology in a more negative light. Engineers themselves were seen as conformist organization men propping up the military-industrial complex. A dissident minority of engineers offered critiques of their profession that appropriated concepts from technology's critics. These dissidents were criticized in turn by conservatives who regarded them as countercultural Luddites. And yet, as Wisnioski shows, the radical minority spurred the professional elite to promote a new understanding of technology as a rapidly accelerating force that our institutions are ill-equipped to handle. The negative consequences of technology spring from its very nature-and not from engineering's failures. ""Sociotechnologists"" were recruited to help society adjust to its technology. Wisnioski argues that in responding to the challenges posed by critics within their profession, engineers in the 1960s helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history.

By: Matthew Wisnioski (Associate Professor Virginia Tech)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 363g
ISBN: 9780262529792
ISBN 10: 0262529793
Series: Engineering Studies
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 02 September 2016
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Matthew Wisnioski is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and the author of Engineers for Change- Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America (MIT Press).

Reviews for Engineers for Change: Competing Visions of Technology in 1960s America

This volume is solidly researched and draws upon an impressive array contemporary articles, archives, and oral histories. The range of people and places discussed is impressive. Wisnioski makes his case concerning arguments for change being widespread among engineers, and his study is a very useful history of currents within engineering during the era. -Bruce E. Seely, The Journal of American History This volume is solidly researched and draws upon an impressive array contemporary articles, archives, and oral histories. The range of people and places discussed is impressive. Wisnioski makes his case concerning arguments for change being widespread among engineers, and his study is a very useful history of currents within engineering during the era. -Bruce E. Seely, The Journal of American History * Reviews *