When we regard the geopolitical power-plays and the many events that rock our
contemporary world, it appears rather strange that the underlying workings of power seem to be
oblivious to the functioning of engineering and engineers. Engineering, in the words of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2010: 24), aims for “the
development, acquisition and application of technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge about the
understanding, design, development, invention, innovation and use of materials, machines, structures,
systems and processes for specific purposesâ€. Gerard van Oortmerssen attributes the technological
development that has created the ‘modern society’ - the builders of infrastructure, industrial production,
mechanised agriculture, modern transportation systems, and technological innovations such as mass
media, computers and communication systems - to engineers (ibid: 7).