Engineering to Help: The Value of Critique in Engineering Service

This article is a reflection on significant recent growth in engineering education programs devoted to service-learning, sustainable development, humanitarian engineering, and so on, which we group under the term “engineering to help” (ETH). ETH programs are touted for their ability to provide engineering students, mainly from wealthy nations, with an opportunity to practice small-scale engineering and gain awareness of social, cultural, economic, and environmental constraints. However, because ETH programs are motivated by a desire to “help,” they may unwittingly re-create or implement neo-colonial, neo-liberal, or other problematic globalizing tendencies, such as affirming Euro-American supremacy abroad. The voices and desires of “developing” communities are often muted or ignored in favor of privileging engineering students’ learning. This paper historically contextualizes the emergence of ETH within the engineering profession, and briefly outlines pertinent critiques of “helping” that may enrich ETH educators’ approaches to such projects.

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