Engineering, Social Justice, and Sustainable Community Development

 

The Engineering, Social Justice, and Sustainable Community Development Project included a 2-day workshop co-sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics in October, 2008, which extended the discussion of engineering ethics into new areas of social justice and sustainable community development.

Engineering addresses problems and opportunities of great importance to the world's poor and underserved populations and nations, and many individual engineers as well as engineering groups are responsive to humanitarian crises and problems of social and environmental justice.

This project included the first in a series of biennial workshops planned by CEES on the theme of engineering ethics and engineering leadership. This workshop was inspired by members of the CEES Advisory Group (CEES-AG), who raised questions about conflicting positive goals for engineering projects in impoverished areas and areas in crisis. These conflicts arise domestically as well as in international arenas. CEES-AG noted that engineers and ethicists had not examined or discussed the difficulties such conflicts could pose for successful project completion. These goals of project sponsors and participants, which are often implicit, include protecting human welfare, ensuring social justice, and striving for environmental sustainability alongside the more often explicit goal of economic development or progress.

The workshop was co-sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) with support from the National Science Foundation and NAE member Harry E. Bovay Jr., the underwriter of activities of the CEES.

The project also resulted in an APPE mini Conference in March 2010.