Journal of Mechanical Design

companion website

FEATURED ARTICLES

What Do We Mean When We Write About Ethics, Equity, and Justice in Engineering Design?

J. Mech. Des. Jun 2023, 145(6): 061402.

Engineering design often involves engaging with users, clients, and stakeholders of products and systems. Therefore, designers should reflect on the societal and environmental implications of their design work so that they can design equitably, ethically, and justly. We reviewed three leading scholarly engineering design publications to investigate how, when, and why the terms “ethics,” “equity,” and “justice,” appear in the engineering design literature and what people mean when they use the terms. We find that these terms are minimally present within the field and suggest that design researchers may be using other terms to refer to their work that is aligned with principles of ethics, equity, and justice. We find that the presence of these terms in the literature has increased over time and that the terms come up throughout various stages of the design process. There appear to be a variety of motivations for including these terms. Specifically, sustainability and education of the next generation of designers are strong motivators for inclusion of these topics. Finally, we propose an expanded design justice framework that is specific to engineering design. We encourage designers in our field to adopt this framework to assist them in thinking through how their engineering design work can be used to advance justice. 

Graphic showing how the design justice framework can be expanded to emphasize emergent themes of interest in engineering design

SHARE: 

Featured Articles Subjects

Additive Manufacturing
Ancient design
Artificial Intelligence
Associate Editors
Awards
Bioinspired Design
Complex Engineered Systems
Compliant Mechanisms
Composites
Data Driven Design
Data Mining
Data-driven Design
Design Automation
Design Communities
Design Education
Design Fixation
Design Innovation
Design of Mechanisms and Robotic Systems
Design Optimization
Design Research
Design Theory
Design Theory And Methodology
Digital Twin
Direct Contact Mechanisms
Double-Blind Review Option
Dynamics
Editors' Choice Award
Energy
Engineered Materials And Structures
Ethics
Fluids
Gears
Generative Design
Guest Editorials
IDETC
Industry
Information Design
International Perspectives
JMD History
JMD Review Process
JMD Statistics
Kinematics
Leadership
Machine Learning
Manufacturing
Mechanisms
Mechanisms Robotics
Memoriam
Neural Networks
Optimization
Origami
Orthotics
Piezoelectric Actuators
Power transmission gearing
Product Development
Robotics
Simulation-based Design
Smart Structures
Special Issues
Sustainable Design