Responsible Engineering, Socio-Technical Systems, and Resilient Communities

• In Event: Engineers: Makers of the World or Cogs in the Machine? - II: Engineers, Local Knowledge and Sustainable Communities

Abstract

This paper conceptualizes the relationships between responsible engineering, socio-technical systems and resilient communities. First, it provides a framework for socially responsible engineering (SRE) that includes the understanding of and engagement in socio-technical systems. Second, it presents artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) as a new area of application of STS theories of socio-technical systems. Third, it shows how engineers can and should include ASGM communities, and their practices, in socio-technical systems in order to achieve community resiliency and well-being. Taking an upcoming framework for SRE as a point of departure (Smith and Lucena, 2019), this paper shows how such framework can be enhanced by teaching engineers about socio-technical systems as an effective way to address the detrimental effects of the ideology of depolitization (Cech, 2014) and become aware of structural conditions and power differentials among stakeholders in the supply chain of gold. Then, it uses more recent STS theories of socio-technical systems - “socio technical alliances” (McLaine and Thomas, 2012) – to understand the complex interrelations between technical and social elements of ASGM in which engineers can interact with communities to make ASGM more environmentally sustainable and socially just. Then, it proposes specific points for these interactions along the supply chain of gold to enhance resiliency in ASGM communities, which are some of the most vulnerable among mineral extraction communities.

Author

• Juan Lucena, Colorado School Of Mines