2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A History of Fabrication and Action: Reconceptualising Engineering Literacy and the Engineer’s Role

Presented at Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering Division (TELPhE) Technical Session 1 — Philosophical Groundings of Engineering Practice

This paper reconceptualizes engineering literacy and the engineer’s role by examining the conceptual history of engineering. It begins from the question of how to frame meaningful engineering responses to public crises, situated in the authors’ own environmental engineering practice. It argues that this practice requires engineers who are literate in the historical ideas and contexts that have shaped accepted notions of the engineer’s role – i.e. what engineers do and what engineering is for. By employing the method of conceptual history, the paper critiques the standard approach to technological and engineering literacy for perpetuating an image of engineering as fabrication. It finds that this image positions engineering as a pre-political activity in a stable natural order. In other words, it conceptually constrains engineers’ agency and reflexivity concerning the aims and consequences of their work. Alternatively, the image of engineering arising from an embodied understanding – the engineer’s self-conception – is explored for its potential for affording agency and reflexivity. The paper finds that this latter image of engineering as action positions engineers as makers of their own image and capable of enacting transitions in engineering practice within a framework of public leadership. The paper concludes by proposing a reconceptualization of engineering literacy and the engineer’s role in the image of engineering as action. It argues that, without this step, even well-intentioned, change-oriented projects risk reproducing the limitations embedded in received notions of engineering literacy and the engineer’s role.

Authors

Charlotte Wang http://orcid.org/0009-0000-5547-7437 UNSW Sydney [biography]

Charlotte Wang is a PhD candidate in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW Sydney. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental) and a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations). Her research is motivated by questions arising from her own environmental engineering practice. It examines the relationship between engineering culture and the public consequences of engineering work, with a particular focus on how engineering knowledge and practice is conceived, represented, legitimated and authorised.
Prof. Robert Frank Care AM UNSW Sydney [biography]

Prof. Robert Care AM is a Professor of Practice at UNSW Sydney with over three decades of experience as an engineering practitioner and industry leader. He spent 37 years as a Director of the Arup Group, including serving as Chair of Arup Australasia and Chair of Arup UK, Middle East and Africa. His career spans senior engineering leadership roles across rail, water, energy, and urban infrastructure, as well as national building regulation reform in Australia. He currently serves on the ACT Government’s Board of Engineering Excellence, the Building Code Committee of the Australian Building Codes Board, and chairs RedR International and RedR Australia. His practice informed interests include engineering leadership, humanitarian engineering, professional judgement, and engineering education, informed in part by his recent reflective career memoir, "Learning a Life".
Dr. Ruth Margaret Fisher http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4756-6952 University of New South Wales [biography]

Dr. Ruth Fisher is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW in an education focussed role. As a program coordinator she is preparing future engineers to tackle global challenges.
Prof. Matthew Kearnes UNSW Sydney [biography]

Prof. Matthew Kearnes is Professor of Environment and Society within the School of Humanities and Languages, UNSW. Matthew is an editor of Science, Technology and Human Values (Sage), an associate editor for Science as Culture (Taylor & Francis).
Prof. Richard Stuetz http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5259-3088 UNSW Sydney [biography]

Richard Stuetz is a Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW Sydney and was previously Deputy Head of School (Academic).

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