Heterogeneous engineering - The role of the contemporary engineer shaping the ecological and social transition

This article, titled “Heterogeneous Engineering: The Role of the Contemporary Engineer…,” presents an innovative perspective on this profession, emphasizing the need to integrate social, environmental, political, and cultural dimensions into the core of design, project implementation, and organizational governance.

This analysis of the transformation of the engineering profession is grounded in contemporary research, such as the report by the École des Arts et Métiers think tank titled “Engineers Facing Environmental and Societal Challenges”: “The profession of tomorrow’s engineers will require them to possess diverse knowledge: scientific and technical, but also historical, geographical, ecological, sociological, psychological, and philosophical. Their roles will also demand new attitudes, skills, and behaviors: a willingness to contribute to improving the world; an aptitude for global foresight; and the ability to work in multicultural teams…” .

Traditionally, the term “engineer” evokes proven technical mastery, as suggested by the very title of *Techniques de l’Ingénieur*. Now, however, an engineer’s mission extends far beyond technical expertise alone: they must simultaneously address social, societal, environmental, and ecological challenges. For this expansion of their responsibilities to be understood and promoted, a specific designation is required: heterogeneous engineering—a concept at the heart of this discussion and defined in the first section of this article.

Today’s world is so complex that no single discipline can, on its own, govern the analysis and resolution of problems. Today’s engineer therefore combines multiple bodies of knowledge to develop heterogeneous engineering.

In 1986, John Law