ABSTRACT
Four decades ago, scholars, inspired by the emerging social study of science (SSS), turned to examine the practices of engineers with the aim to come to a more realistic picture of engineering and technology than the one provided by philosophy of technology predominant at that time. 1 In the present chapter, Larry Bucciarelli and Peter Kroes focus on the lessons to be learned from this turn toward engineering and design practices. Before considering their insights, I will fi rst sketch some highlights of the literature on these practices as far as relevant for this chapter. After that, in Section II, I will argue that the turn to practice is most appropriately interpreted as a shift of paradigm in science and engineering studies. Section III is dedicated to the mismatch or discrepancy Bucciarelli and Kroes observe between engineering curricula and the practices in engineering design. And fi nally, in Section IV, I turn to the advantages of interpreting this mismatch as originating in the shift of paradigm of Section II, rather than as just a lack of societal norms and values.
