Dissertation Research - Swamp Rats, Fat Cats and Soggy Suburbs: Civil Engineers and City Planners in southeast Florida

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This is a Science and Technology Studies dissertation improvement grant. The project will study how Civil Engineers and City Planners have affected the shape of cities through their professional practices in relation to infrastructure. Funds from the grant will support expenses related to travel. As a case study, the researcher will examine how involvement of Planners and Engineers in the planning and construction of drainage canals in the Everglades in the 20th century exposes the political, social, economic and environmental issues of infrastructure conception, implementation, and their relation to urban expansion. Evaluating the roles and influences of Civil Engineers and City Planners in this context constitutes an important social study of technology and its effect on these professions as well as on urban growth. Although both of these professions are directly involved with growth and urban development, Civil Engineers have had a greater physical impact on the shape of cities but they do not explicitly discuss this outcome. City Planners have also underestimated the implications of infrastructure networks due to a lack of introspection on their own professional practice, and a limited appreciation of the significance of Civil Engineering. The political, economic, social and environmental contexts of the region are unique in their detail, but the larger implications of their interaction with a technological network and associated professions have significant lessons for expanding cities and suburbs. A better understanding of how these infrastructure systems have been lobbied for, designed, built and maintained in the past, should broadly impact on the ability of today's Civil Engineers and City Planners to more effectively meet the present and future needs of growing cities.