工程社会评估的缘起与发展

Engineering Social Assessment: Origins and Development

工程与社会的关系是工程社会学的基本问题之一。许多哲学家都认为,技术所引发的一系列问题的根源并不是由于技术本身,而是在于人性和社会。20世纪60年代中期,美国国会提出了关于建立技术评估制度的议案,该议案主要致力于对技术可能会给社会、经济以及环境等造成的影响加以预测,使技术政策和决策在对直接的近期利益和间接的远期后果进行充分考虑的同时,也注重经济效益以及不可逆转的社会和环境影响。在技术动力学研究和技术的社会建构思潮影响下诞生了工程社会评估(Social Assessment of Engineering)。工程社会评估理论的发展归结为一对矛盾:内部矛盾和外部矛盾。对评估的有效性要求及希望乃基于人类对未来的美好预期,这种预期是工程活动得以开展的前提。赋予评估的使命是给出这样一个美好预期。这种评估很难保证实际工程结果达到预期的有效性,但这并不影响评估的必要性。期待着将来来建立一个评估的可量化、可操作的指标体系。但应当说明这样的一个指标体系不是终极的,是动态演化的。

The relationship between engineering and society is one of the basic problems of engineering sociology.Many philosophers would argue that the root cause of the problem is not in technology itself, but in human nature and society. In the middle of 1960s, the United States Congress proposed to establish a technical evaluation system, which was primarily focused on the impact of technology, economy, environment and so on.Such a proposal not only made full consideration of the technical policy and the decision on the results in the immediatefuture and the indirect long-term, but also paid attention to the economic benefits and the irreversible socialand environmental impacts. Under the influence of the social construction of technology dynamics, social assessmentof engineering was born. The development of the theory of social assessment of engineering is attributedto a pair of contradictions: internal and external contradictions. Assessment of the effectiveness of the requirementsor hopes based on the will of good future of the human is expected, which often give a good forecast. Thisassessment is difficult to ensure that the actual engineering results in the desired effectiveness, but this situationdoes not affect the necessary for assessment. Therefore, the external contradiction can only be handled but can notbe completely avoided. Researchers are looking forward to the future, in which a quantifiable and operable indexsystem for the assessment is established. It should be explained that such an indicator system is not the ultimate,but in a process of dynamic evolution.