Everyday Engineering : An Ethnography of Design and Innovation

Everyday Engineering was written to help future engineers understand what they aregoing to be doing in their everyday working lives, so that they can do their work more effectivelyand with a broader social vision. It will also give sociologists deeper insights into thesociotechnical world of engineering. The book consists of ethnographic studies in which the authors,all trained in both engineering and sociology, go into the field as participant-observers. The sitesand types of engineering explored include mechanical design in manufacturing industries, instrumentdesign, software debugging, environmental management within companies, and the implementation of asystem for separating household waste.The book is organized in three parts. The first partintroduces the complexity of technical practices. The second part enters the social and culturalworlds of designers to grasp their practices and motivations. The third part examines the role ofwriting practices and graphical representation. The epilogue uses the case studies to raise a seriesof questions about how objects can be taken into account in sociological analyses of humanorganizations.

Dominique Vinck is Professor at Pierre Mendès-France University and at the Polytechnic National Institute of Grenoble. He is also a member of CRISTO, a research center associated with CNRS that focuses on sociotechnical innovation and industrial organizations.