Cultivating the Assimilative Perspective in Contextual Engineering – Knowing What You Don’t Know

Ann-Perry Witmer

doi:10.36479/jhe.v8i1.173

Abstract

Contextual Engineering methodology affords engineering practitioners a more robust process for identifying socioeconomic and cultural conditions within a client community that could affect adoption and sustainability of a technical infrastructure. This methodology seeks to build an assimilative view of the client through direct interactions, which enable the practitioner to assess critical local conditions without filtering her understanding through the lens of her own experience. Many practitioners assert that direct interaction with a client community is unnecessary to achieve an assimilative view, particularly in an era when information is widely available via the internet, and communication with remote partners is possible using a variety of technologies. But assessments of the perceptions of engineering practitioners engaged in two separate projects in Latin America before and after travel to the client communities demonstrate that their understanding of community conditions were altered dramatically once they interacted with residents and experienced site conditions firsthand.

Highlights

The practice of Contextual Engineering relies strongly upon an assimilative understanding of client conditions if the engineering practitioner intends to implement an effective technological intervention for an unfamiliar society and builds upon a body of research that exhaustively explores current practices in humanitarian engineering (Witmer, 2018a)
This level of perception is advocated in Contextual Engineering, a rapidly emerging approach to addressing recipient societal needs through technical interventions that relies upon integration of place-based conditions and identities with technology design (Witmer, 2018b)
Engineering Problem Solving (EPS), trivialises the value of identifying and understanding unfamiliar contexts that range from divergent belief systems to exotic physical conditions, any of which could have a dramatic impact on functionality, adaptation, and sustainability of an engineered design for the client community

Summary

Introduction

The practice of Contextual Engineering relies strongly upon an assimilative understanding of client conditions if the engineering practitioner intends to implement an effective technological intervention for an unfamiliar society and builds upon a body of research that exhaustively explores current practices in humanitarian engineering (Witmer, 2018a) This new framework for international engineering draws from existing processes for project design preparation, which can be grouped roughly into two classifications:. Decision-making tools, such as a Capacity Factor analysis model proposed by Bouabid and Louis (2105); a project-outcome predictor as proposed by Wicklein (1998); and a dynamic-link logical framework advocated by Khang and Moe (2008) Unlike these frameworks, though, Contextual Engineering focuses on building within practitioners an assimilative perspective, which requires a self-awareness on the part of practitioners so that they may recognise and compensate for the imposition of their personal beliefs and values upon the design process. EPS, trivialises the value of identifying and understanding unfamiliar contexts that range from divergent belief systems to exotic physical conditions, any of which could have a dramatic impact on functionality, adaptation, and sustainability of an engineered design for the client community

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion