Multi-sited ethnographies and studies of engineering practice

The reproduction, development and transformation of engineering work and culture have been the focus of a number of theoretical and empirical studies over the last 60 years or so (Barley 2005). In the 1950‟ties and 1960‟ties the predominant perspective was that of the engineering profession studied by sociological methods including studies of engineers serving authoritarian regimes. In the 1970‟ies the perspective shifted to Marxist inspired discussions of the engineering profession in relation to class structure in parallel to studies of engineering education and skills from a perspective coming from Industrial Sociology. Over the last 30 years the studies have – to a large extend – used ethnographic and grounded methods in order to investigate the specifics of engineering practices in situated perspectives. Thus the overall trend has been from a macro to a micro perspective. We argue that this trend has – in many respects – led to a richer and empirically sensitive perspective on engineering work and culture. Thus, detailed studies of engineering work practices or engineering education provide new material for a richer understanding of engineering culture. On the other hand, however, the specific and strictly situated focus of these studies threatens to limit discussions of engineering practices to departmental and discrete institutional settings. We propose a research agenda that – inspired by George Marcus‟ multi-sited ethnographic methodology (Marcus 1998) – sees (and contrasts) engineering practices in diverse settings (e.g. engineering education and engineering work) in order to uncover the material-discursive transformations in these practices. In our oral presentation we will outline the research perspective we intend to use in our study of engineering practices in the research program PROCEED. Our study will rely on the fundamental presumption that engineering practices are produced and reproduced in two – different, but mutually constitutive – institutional contexts: one located in institutional settings that are concerned with the reproduction of engineering knowledge and skills, i.e. engineering education and research, and the second based in engineering work, institutionally situated in organizations and companies. Thus our study will address these two institutional contexts by investigating their fields of materialdiscursive practices. Engineering work and education are not viewed as distinct spheres performing independent versions of engineering theory and practice but as one of interplay and mutual constituency.