New forms of social engineering are moulding society – often driven by short term trends and effects rather than long-term social responsibility. Sensationalistic media dominate, culture becomes little more than a market, politics is a façade, and the city has become the stage for the whole drama. A range of contributors, including Pier Vittorio Aureli, Jan Willem Duyvendak, Urban-Think Tank and Eyal Weizman explore this phenomenon and the consequences for architecture and urban planning.

Our society seems to be locked into a position in which the user’s and voter’s choices determine how we shall live in the future. A disturbing collective urban life in a giant Big Brother House looms, a material and social world in which sensationalistic media and its commercial translation dominate. Our sense of what is real and what is quality is on the verge of collapse. The practice and education of the engineers of this society is determined by short-term effect instead of long-term social responsibility. Culture becomes little more than a market, politics its façade and the city its stage. Instead of reviving old school high modernist social engineering or claiming the need for an intellectual junta, we solicit new forms of social engineering. Where shall this lead?

Volume 16. Engineering Society includes contributions by Pier Vittorio Aureli, Michel Bauwens, Andrew Bullen, Lard Buurman, Roger Cremers, Aukje Dekker, Jan Willem Duyvendak, Erik Gerritsen, Dionisio González, jeroen Heester, Gabu Heindl, Jeremy Hight, Joost Janmaat, Desmond Kwame, Dick de Lange, Jeroen de Lange, Matt Lewis, Neville Mars, The Office for Social Engineering, Wouter Oostendorp, Drehli Robnik, Justus Uitermark, Jouke Sieswerda, Anoek Steketee, Bill Thompson, Urban-Think Tank, Wouter Vanstiphout, Steven Wassenaar, Eyal Weizman