Abstrakt
The notion that technologies perform materially embedded policies stemming from, among other influences, the voluntary and involuntary choices made by their designers, may seem all but obvious to an STS researcher. To this day, however, it isn't always fully appreciated and reflected within the design process, especially if the designers face financial, organizational, technological or time constraints.
Such limitations may exist in a number of fields and circumstances - in this paper I focus on the case of Czech civil engineers working on designs intended for development projects in the Global South. Drawing on data collected on the various activities of the International Center for World Development of the Czech Technical University (a course in development civil engineering, public seminars by accomplished experts and a small scale development project implemented by the founder and current head of the Center), I examine the ways in which Czech engineers plan and imagine their designs working within the framework of development cooperation.
Specifically, I discuss the strategies they employ when conceptualizing and stabilizing the location where the design is to be implemented (and its development needs); the techniques applied to reconcile local technologies with their own knowledge; and the negotiation of authorship while seeking to both handover the project to partners/recipients, and to use it as a source of lasting recognition.