Exploring Perspectives on Engineering: Trajectories and Narratives

Abstract

Engineering, a subject of empirical rigour with the axis of performing a practical function for a system or device user, continuously translates knowledge into social change through an ever-changing modern lens, retaining a dual resonance in the frame of professional evolution. Firstly, a progression of available conceptual knowledge and approaches will occur. This induces the change observed in professional structure and alteration in engineering role and character. These outcomes may be discussed through the path of the discipline’s professional trajectory in parallel with an engineer’s archetypal portrait, not with reference to scientific knowledge expansion, which is characteristic of different historical periods, but in terms of the development of engineering approaches. Although it is often overlooked, at the core of true engineering is a philanthropic heart and the desire to deliver a productive service. Thus, the second evolutionary force is effectively social and forward-looking in nature as public needs grow and diverge, addressed through innovation’s social role. The convergence of these two elementary dynamisms of conceptual and social roots, is exemplified in a case study on Kisiizi Hospital, which speaks directly to the aim of this study: to achieve a comprehensive view of the modern engineering mentality’s application in social settings.

Propelled by interviews with engineers and project managers alongside primary studies, this exploration proposes the invariance of core engineering frameworks whilst technical progression is observed. This constitutes agreement with the understanding of a professional system of profiles which acts as the stem for social, economic, and technological advancements.