7. Convincing Others: Engineering for Human Rights and Engineering Power

Engineers who wish to promote imaginative innovation in the acceptance and expression of ethical responsibility in their profession need to convince others, especially their fellow engineers and decision makers, of the validity and practicality of their ethical vision. Participation in base communities, such as trade unions and faith communities, can promote innovative ethical discourse and generous ethical action in what might be termed a bottom-up approach. It is also important to make use of what might be termed top-down approaches. The first to be considered will be the broad international consensus on the validity and value of human rights. In particular, the recent international application of human rights approaches to business activities provides an important means of expressing the ethical challenges and opportunities for engineers in an universally understood language. Such a human rights approach can be readily understood by business managers and politicians and has the additional advantage of legal backing. The second approach to be considered will aim more specifically to find a means of convincing Western politicians of the scope for engineering to contribute to human flourishing. This is a difficult task as most leading Western politicians have a very poor knowledge of the nature of engineering. Based on the writings of a leading ethically engaged twentieth century politician, Aneurin Bevan, and a leading political theorist, Joseph S. Nye, it will be suggested that the best way to communicate with politicians is to use the language of political power. Engineering can be both a power resource and a means of power conversion and hence of realising power. Extending Nye’s concepts of soft power, smart power and relational power, it will be proposed that engineers should engage politicians through discussion of engineering power, the ability to attain preferred outcomes though the peaceful use of engineering capabilities.