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The Resource Engineers for change : competing visions of technology in 1960s America, Matthew Wisnioski, (electronic book)

Engineers for change : competing visions of technology in 1960s America, Matthew Wisnioski, (electronic book)

Creator
Author
Summary
An account of conflicts within engineering in the 1960s that helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history. In the late 1960s an eclectic group of engineers joined the antiwar and civil rights activists of the time in agitating for change. The engineers were fighting to remake their profession, challenging their fellow engineers to embrace a more humane vision of technology. In Engineers for Change, Matthew Wisnioski offers an account of this conflict within engineering, linking it to deep-seated assumptions about technology and American life. The postwar period in America saw a near-utopian belief in technology's beneficence. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, society--influenced by the antitechnology writings of such thinkers as Jacques Ellul and Lewis Mumford--began to view technology in a more negative light. Engineers themselves were seen as conformist organization men propping up the military-industrial complex. A dissident minority of engineers offered critiques of their profession that appropriated concepts from technology's critics. These dissidents were criticized in turn by conservatives who regarded them as countercultural Luddites. And yet, as Wisnioski shows, the radical minority spurred the professional elite to promote a new understanding of technology as a rapidly accelerating force that our institutions are ill-equipped to handle. The negative consequences of technology spring from its very nature--and not from engineering's failures. "Sociotechnologists" were recruited to help society adjust to its technology. Wisnioski argues that in responding to the challenges posed by critics within their profession, engineers in the 1960s helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history
Language
eng
Work
Instance
Label
Engineers for change : competing visions of technology in 1960s America
Title
Engineers for change
Title remainder
competing visions of technology in 1960s America
Statement of responsibility
Matthew Wisnioski
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
An account of conflicts within engineering in the 1960s that helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history. In the late 1960s an eclectic group of engineers joined the antiwar and civil rights activists of the time in agitating for change. The engineers were fighting to remake their profession, challenging their fellow engineers to embrace a more humane vision of technology. In Engineers for Change, Matthew Wisnioski offers an account of this conflict within engineering, linking it to deep-seated assumptions about technology and American life. The postwar period in America saw a near-utopian belief in technology's beneficence. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, society--influenced by the antitechnology writings of such thinkers as Jacques Ellul and Lewis Mumford--began to view technology in a more negative light. Engineers themselves were seen as conformist organization men propping up the military-industrial complex. A dissident minority of engineers offered critiques of their profession that appropriated concepts from technology's critics. These dissidents were criticized in turn by conservatives who regarded them as countercultural Luddites. And yet, as Wisnioski shows, the radical minority spurred the professional elite to promote a new understanding of technology as a rapidly accelerating force that our institutions are ill-equipped to handle. The negative consequences of technology spring from its very nature--and not from engineering's failures. "Sociotechnologists" were recruited to help society adjust to its technology. Wisnioski argues that in responding to the challenges posed by critics within their profession, engineers in the 1960s helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history
Member of
Cataloging source
CaPaEBR
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1978-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Wisnioski, Matthew H.
Dewey number
303.48/3097309046
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
T14.5
LC item number
.W5664 2012eb
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • standards specifications
  • bibliography
Series statement
Engineering studies series
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Technology
  • Technology
Label
Engineers for change : competing visions of technology in 1960s America, Matthew Wisnioski, (electronic book)
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
ebr10617474
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
xvii, 286 p.
Form of item
electronic
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Original version note
Original electronic resource
Other physical details
ill.
Reproduction note
Electronic resource.
Specific material designation
remote
Label
Engineers for change : competing visions of technology in 1960s America, Matthew Wisnioski, (electronic book)
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Control code
ebr10617474
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
xvii, 286 p.
Form of item
electronic
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Original version note
Original electronic resource
Other physical details
ill.
Reproduction note
Electronic resource.
Specific material designation
remote

Subject

Member of

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