Nonlinear STS, Engineering Studies and Dominant Images of Engineering Formation: An Interview with Professor Gary Downey

As Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia tech, Professor Gary Downey is current President of the Society for Social Studies of Science(4S; 2013-2015), and a renowned scholar in the fields of STS and engineering studies. In this interview, Professor Downey describes how he is leading 4S initiatives to call attention to STS scholarship that goes beyond the linear model of knowledge creation, diffusion, and utilization, or what Downey calls "nonlinear STS." Having been trained initially as a mechanical engineer and cultural anthropologist studying controversies over nuclear power and nuclear waste disposal, he describes how he developed the concept and practice of "critical participation." His critical participation in engineering formation(engineering education and training) began with critical analysis of the "dominant image" of engineering problem solving as U.S. engineers have understood it since the 1960 s. Downey also questioned how and why engineering remained largely invisible in the emergence of STS as a scholarly field, except as a synonym for technology or as a metaphor for the heterogeneous construction of new technologies. Difficulties he encountered in teaching became crucial sites for making visible what the dominant image of engineering problem solving hid in engineering formation, and nominating an alternative image of engineering as collaborative problem definition and solution(PDS). He is now re-theorizing the "travel" of STS knowledge and expertise by helping the PDS image and associated practices scale up across localized arenas of engineering formation and work. Downey also explains how he joined with other researchers to establish and build Engineering Studies as an interdisciplinary field of research committed to both conventional and nonlinear scholarship. Key steps included founding the International Network for Engineering Studies(INES), organizing INES workshops, and creating the SCI journal Engineering Studies: Journal of the International Network for Engineering Studies.