Hitting the Brakes: Engineering Design and the Production of Knowledge

(Duke University Press) This book examines the social, historical, and cultural dynamics of engineering design. Using the development of antilock braking systems for passenger cars as a case study, Johnson shows that the path to invention is both complicated and unpredictable. She argues that design represents the convergence of multiple streams of knowledge, as individuals, corporations, university research centers, and government organizations informally coalesce around a design problem that is continually refined and redefined. Johnson is an associate professor of history and philosophy at the University of South Carolina.