Public Involvement In Engineering

This dissertation focuses on the relations between the public and the engineering community.Their relations went through a process of alienation,correlation and closeness.In the early days,"public involvement" was an issue outside the engineering community.With the socialization of engineering,engineering and public are further intertwined.The lack of public in the engineering community will cause harm to the public and affect social order,ecological environment,as well as the structure of engineering community.Therefore,it is particularly necessary to get the public to involve in the engineering community.Why does the engineering community transform from a homogeneous community into a heterogeneous community?This dissertation sorts out the concept and evolution of the engineering community.Through investigation,it was found that the transformation of the community from homogeneous to heterogeneous was caused by the socialization of engineering.Professional community and professional ethics are not enough to cope with and solve larger social problems.With the advent of engineering socialization,homogeneous community is facing a crisis.It needs to reintegrate and accommodate the public,which is the ultimate "the other".A community without the public will not only threaten or harm the rights of the public,but may also cause the engineering to be kidnapped by elitism,induce an irrational decision-making process,and even influence the social order.Among them,along with the community's change towards pluralism,engineering ethics has also transformed from individual engineer ethics to community ethics.Does the heterogeneous engineering community necessarily include the public?This dissertation explores the delicate and complex relations between the public and engineering community.Although engineering community is not ready to accept the ideas of public,we can see from the cases that the public participation is still necessary(especially by balancing the advantages and disadvantages).Public participation is affected by multiple factors inside and outside the engineering community,such as culture,political and institutional factors,popularization of engineering,the personality,education and experience of the public,expert opinions,media,social organization,government and enterprise,collaboration of the stakeholders within or without the community.However,the process of public participation often requires a lot of human and financial resources,and may also lead to "irrational decision-making" of the project.This led to a discussion of elitism vs populism,the right of the public,and the trust of experts.Therefore,the new community after the public's inclusion needs to reshape its order,and this order is finally balanced after complex and lengthy negotiations.In order to achieve the balanced development of the community,they need to abide by:the rules of justice and love,trust and loyalty,care and tolerance,negotiation and cooperation,and sustainable development.They should jointly maintain the bonds of community.They should reasonably resolve conflicts about people and nature,engineering results and goals,stakeholders,different divisions of labor,different rules and cultures.The public is at the core of such community relations and plays multiple roles in engineering practice,such as technology users(designers),engineering decision makers,core actors,evaluator and result sharer.Of course,public engagement in engineering is related with the cooperation of other stakeholders in the community.The participation process of plural subjects is also accompanied by the evolution of complex community relations.How is public involvement possible?This dissertation concludes that"participation" is possible only when the public are acting within the community:By achieving multi-stakeholder collaboration,the government's trust in social organizations,reasonable distribution of power,the emergence of corporate conscience,the rational operation of a smart government,the cooperation and coordination of industry associations,and the co-construction of technology resources-can make the engineering community fully prepare for the public involvement;The "understanding-integration-assessment" of the public,integration of cultural and social environmental resources,information disclosure and exchange,autonomy and improvement of civic literacy outside the community can create conditions for the public to actively participate in the affairs of the engineering community;A series of paths such as the reasonable involvement of social organizations,the use of media,and the popularization of engineering can ultimately enable the public to be accepted by the community,thereby,achieving the better engagement in engineering affairs.