We need to talk about engineering policy

The governance of engineering, unlike science, is rarely discussed in the academy. We analyse this issue in relation to the prevalence of the term ‘engineering policy’ in contrast to ‘science policy’ as a means of demonstrating the nature of the different treatment of these concepts inside the academy and outside. We show that ‘engineering policy’ as a term has almost no academic inquiry relative to science policy, and that even ‘engineering’ is marginalised in critical social science domains like Science and Technology Studies, as others have noted. Further, we extend this exploration with regard to the visibility of engineering policy in practice communities where it ought to be visible but isn't. Specifically, we use the UK government and governance communities as a space to show how engineering and policy for engineering remain side-lined in policy practice. Given how central engineering is to society, the obscurity of its governance mechanisms and the absence of critical scrutiny of engineering policy, we propose a research and action agenda as a means of stimulating action and coalescing a community of stakeholders to redress this situation with some urgency.