Paper short abstract:

The paper intends to explore how STS can teach engineering students to think their profession beyond the problem/solution perspective.

Paper long abstract:

Based on an more than 6 years experience teaching BA engineering students, this paper intends to reflect on the ways, in which the knowledge of Actor-Network Theory inspired Social Studies of Science and Technology can become plausible and at the same time somewhat irritating for engineering students.

Indeed, through numerous examples, I try to show engineering students the implausability of many categories through which we tend to think technology related practices, starting with the dichotomy technology/society.

Whereas students, not versed in social sciences and in their debates, seemed to not have issues with the adoption of most, if not all, STS tenets, they tend to have more difficulties in accepting the consequential overcoming of the problem/solution dichotomy, around which a relevant part of their identity is built.

Nevertheless, only overcoming the idea that engineering - or any other kind of profession - solves problems, fully positions engineering within a collective perspective, where engineering can still have a role in providing stabilizations of collective articulations, though without being depoliticized and without engineers being deresponsibilized.

While introducing such perspective, what is relevant is to listen to students and their refusal to accept it. Such dialogue can indeed shed light on the image of engineering, as well as help a shared work of reconsidering students' future profession, without frustrate their expectations.