Engineering, Social Justice, and Sustainable Community Development: Summary of a Workshop

Engineering, Social Justice, and Sustainable Community Development is the first in a series of biennial workshops on the theme of engineering ethics and engineering leadership. This workshop addresses conflicting positive goals for engineering projects in impoverished areas and areas in crisis. These conflicts arise domestically as well as in international arenas. The goals of project sponsors and participants, which are often implicit, include protecting human welfare, ensuring social justice, and striving for environmental sustainability alongside the more often explicit goal of economic development or progress.

The workshop, summarized in this volume, discussed how to achieve the following:

• Improve research in engineering ethics.
• Improve engineering practice in situations of crisis and conflict.
• Improve engineering education in ethics and social issues.
• Involve professional societies in these efforts.