Engineering knowledge and practices constitute a central component in the creation of global sustainable development. Thus, of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals six are directly linked to engineering problems and solutions. Yet, in leading transnational cultural organizations – notably in the United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – engineering as a distinct form of human activity and expertise has been marginalized. This research focus investigates how the marginalization in the UN system of engineering culture has come about and what consequences this has had A) within the UN system and in particular for UNESCO led activities B) internally in the engineering profession and its transnational organizations C) for public perceptions of ‘the engineer’ as a key contributor to global sustainable development.

By analyzing these issues this research focus approaches engineering cultures as a distinctive form of expertise in its own right rather than as a form of ‘applied science’. In particular, it investigates the long traditions of resource management and sustainable development that have been part of Western as well as non-Western engineering cultures long before these became buss words in policymaking. Furthermore, it investigates the destructive impacts that engineering activities have entailed with the aim of learning from past failures of techno-politics.

Given the importance of engineering for sustainable development these are crucial issues to which we currently desperately lack research-based knowledge. This research focus aims to provide this knowledge. Moreover, through public engagements and educational activities a key objective is to use these findings to contribute to a fuller integration of the engineering profession into the challenges of creating global sustainable development. The research initiative builds upon a project on global networks and the engineering profession.

Contact

Assistant Professor Casper Andersen, Department for Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts, University of Aarhus

E-mail: ideca@hum.au.dk

Selected publications and activities:

C. Andersen, British engineers and Africa 1875-1914 (London, Pickering and Chatto 2011)

C. Andersen, ‘Colonial Connections and Consulting Engineers 1850-1930’, Engineering History and Heritage, 164:4 (2011), pp. 201-209

C. Andersen, ‘The Philae controversy: Muscular modernization and paternalistic preservation in Aswan and

London’, History and Anthropology, 22:2 (2011), pp. 203-221

R. Craggs & C. Andersen, ‘Decolonization, Professionals and the Geographies of Expertise’, Research Panel, RGS-IBG Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh 03-06-2012

C. Andersen, Homo Habilis, ‘The engineering world and UNESCO man’, Narratives, Cognition and Human Evolution, University of Aarhus, 08-05-2012

C. Andersen, ‘Climate Change – Engineering and perspectives from the developing world’, COP 15 - Artic Venue, 06-12-2009.