Engineering and Development

Focusing on engineering in the Global South, this elective relates engineering applications (in global engineering) to a societal debate (what is (desirable) development). These themes span domains, programs and tracks within the CEG Faculty. Students define their expertise in relation to the themes and other students expertise. They learn about similarities and differences of techniques and methods from different domains. Building on the idea that engineering solutions – useful and needed as they are – are always positioned within a societal debate, students discover their own position in this arena. They are challenged to define and discover how their own expertise can be usefully mobilized for societal development. Given that engineers are looked at to propose solutions, students learn how to engage their own expertise within debates with other experts and other stakeholders. Students are engaged in a discussion-based format to learn and exchange on issues of development, political aspects of engineering, options/examples of interventions, comparisons between contexts, etcetera. Examples on differences and similarities in debates and positions on technological development influencing engineering solutions are explored. The exact setup of the sessions is decided on for each study year, as themes and topics are adapted to debates as they are encountered in relevant circles. These sessions are related to this list of key topics: Development theory (societal development, power relations, economic issues, globalization); Role of technology (engineering decisions, innovation ideas, history of technology); Co-creation and design interventions (participatory design, tinkering, values in design); Sustainable development goals (Differences and connections, development cooperation, role of states and UN institutes).

Week activities:

2 sessions of 4 hours each, with associated reading, group discussions and individual reflection. As the actual themes are different each year. In general, the first weeks will be used to introduce a series of themes/topics, with the later weeks more focused on case studies and/or more complex debates.