IS THERE AN URGENT TASK OF EDUCATING ENGINEERING STUDENTS TO BECOME `REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONERS´?

Societal dynamics recently undergoes deep stuctural changes. Integrative differentiation and commitment to `innovation society´ are becoming main overarching characteristics. Acquiring and widening core competences for sustainable applicability in work more than enhancing the knowledge base, new capacities have to take the central position. Experiential learning and (computer) modelling get new importance alongside the traditional way of developing theories and their application. Capacities of interpreting and `framereflection´, instead of routinized problem solving will get central position, not only in epochal issues but also in the issues of everyday life and production. All this puts emphasis on a new type of master and apprentice relation. Further, because the growing role of expertise reproduces the growing role of participation in a society where service gets the new central role instead of producing things adequate communication with experts and clients gets central role. To solve the task of becoming competent in a `service society´ needs enormous efforts in engineering education too. To become a co-evolutionary partner, education, including engineering education, has to proactively accomodate to these changes. In its essence this restructuration of engineering education needs to put back the inclusion of it into real practice. The article makes some comments on the basic reasons of why and how this putting back may be made when basic new requirements to engineering activity and its mental tools are emerging with an emerging `innovation society´

THE STATE AND THE ARTIFACT

The social science analysis of the history of technologicai artifacts and investments was much developed in the last ten years. Social constructivists reformed the existing methods. Their approach is applied here to t he famous case of constructing a barrage system on the Danube

Az innováció politika megalapozása evolucionista megközelítéssel

A tanulmány három alapvető részből áll. Először az innováció politika megalapozásával foglalkozik. Ennek egyik alapvető rétege a komplex evolúciós rendszerek, az instabil rendszerek dinamikájának tanulmányozásából adódik. A tanulmány utána röviden vizsgálja az innováció, mint stilizált jelenség empirikus jellegzetességeit. Szembeállítja a neoklasszikus és az evolúció elméleti közelítésmódot, majd vizsgálja az evolucionista megközelítésű innováció politika néhány jellemzőjét. Alapvető megállapításai: az innováció politika konzekvens megalapozásának van kielégítő ontológiai háttere, ez az instabil rendszerek dinamikájából kiinduló evolucionista szemlélet. A neoklasszikus közelítés nem teljesíti az ennek alapján megjelenő fogalmi kritériumokat. Az evolucionista szemlélet számos kvalitatív szemléleti előnyt kínál. Ezek beépítése megkezdődött az innováció politikai kutatásba illetve, kezdeti szinten bizonyos innováció politikákba. The paper consists of three essential parts. First of all it discusses the foundation of innovation policy. One basic layer of this emerges form analyzing the dynamics of complex evolution systems, the instable systems. Consequently the paper briefly looks into the special empirical characteristics of innovation as a stylized phenomenon. It compares neoclassical and evolution theory approaches and then examines some features of evolutionist innovation policy. The basic findings of the paper include: the consequent foundation of innovation policy has its satisfactory ontological background in the evolutionist approach originating from the dynamics of instable systems. The neoclassical approach fails to fulfill the conceptual criteria emerging from this. The evolutionist approach offers various qualitative advantages. Their integration has started in innovation policy research and certain innovation policies

Living Labs for SMEs

Interactive, co-creative relation of consumers, users and producers is quickly developing recently. Living Labs (LL) have a bridging role between market pull and technology push. They realise concurrent innovation. LLs are approaches to realise an interactive search for new products/services in real life milieus together with users/consumers, without mediation of marketing experts. Our presentation highlights LLs first as providers of a collaborative working environment for users. It emphasises that LLs have a strong methodology and describes and assesses the „LL Harmonization cubes”. It outlines then what LLs can bring advantages for SMEs. Main added value of LLs for SMEs is that they provide for innovation services by integrating SMEs in a collaborative working environment that would otherwise not available for them.