Ensuring that their work has a positive influence on society is a responsibility and a privilege for engineers, but also a considerable challenge. This book addresses the ways in which engineers meet this challenge, working from the assumption that for a project to be truly ethical both the undertaking itself and its implementation must be ethically sound.
The contributors discuss varied topics from an international and interdisciplinary perspective, including
l robot ethics;
l outer space;
l international development;
l internet privacy and security;
l green branding;
l arms conversion;
l green employment; and
l deliberate misinformation about climate change
Important questions are answered, such as
l what is meant by engineering ethics and its practical implications;
l how decisions made by engineers in their working lives make an impact at the global as well as the local level; and
l what ethics-related questions should be asked before making such decisions.
Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability will be a valuable resource for practising and student engineers as well as all who are interested in professional ethics, especially as it relates to engineering. Researchers and policy makers concerned with the effects of engineering decisions on environmental sustainability and international stability will find this book to be of special interest.
About the Author: Doctor Hersh is currently a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering (formerly the Department of Electrical Engineering) at the University of Glasgow. Her previous employment was also in higher education, as a researcher. Currently she carries out research on assistive technology, particularly for people with sensory impairments, teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Schools of Engineering and Education and has overall responsibility for the MSc Engineering with Management students.
The book is very relevant to deciding in which topics to carry out research and from whom to accept funding. This is an issue that relates to the underlying ethics of an activity rather than the ethics of how it is carried out.
Doctor Hersh has been involved for several years with Technical Committees of the International Federation of Automatic Control on Social Impact of Automation and TC9/5 International Stability, Technology and Culture, formerly Supplemental Ways of Improving International Stability (SWIIS) and more loosely with the other Social Systems Technical Committees. She has been vice-chair of the SWISS TC and now TC9/5 for the past six years. TC9/5 has a long term interest in ethics in the context of both international issues and the environment. The proposed book is highly relevant to the work of this TC. The community associated with this TC will also provide a means of promoting the book internationally.
She is also actively involved in Scientists for Global Responsibility, a UK organisation which promotes ethical science, design and technology and has a particular concern about the environment and sustainability. The book is again highly relevant to the work of this organisation.
