Engineering For A Better World: The Meaning Of Utopian Thinking For Engineering Education

In recent years we have seen that conferences of the eight richest countries in the world in Seattle, Genoa and Florence invoked large demonstrations by anti-globalists who condemn the economic policy of the rich countries aimed at a global free market. One might reject the violent methods of these demonstrators, or a small group of them, but there is one thing no one can deny: they have a utopian consciousness, they believe that a better world is possible and desirable. A Dutch paper reporting on the battle in Genoa described the background as follows: “the utopian longing for a better world”.