What is it about?
Technology is identified as both cause of and solution to today's social and environmental challenges. This book examines why and how engineers have historically engaged in solving social challenges; why some technological solutions have unexpectedly created new problems; and how engineers have coped with technology’s puzzling ability to both help and harm. This book synthesizes two decades of history of technology and engineering research from a 'grand challenges' perspective. It is extensively language edited to make it easily accessible to engineering students.
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Why is it important?
All engineers and engineering students ought to read this book to understand the social relevance and context of their discipline and their (future) work. Historians should read this book to understand the entanglement of political, social, economical and technical changes in the making of modern history.
Perspectives
This book is mandatory reading for all students at the Bachelor School of Eindhoven University of Technology, which has a large and mandatory User-Society-Enterprise program.
Erik van der Vleuten
Eindhoven University of Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past. A Social History of Technology, March 2017, Amsterdam University Press,
DOI: 10.5117/9789462985407.
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