Liebrand, J. 2021. Whiteness in engineering: Tracing technology, masculinity and race in Nepal’s development. Himal Books. 232 p., US$ 60.
URL: https://himalbooks.com/product/whiteness-an-engineering-tracing-technology-masculinity-and-race-in-nepals-development/
Jacqueline Goldin
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
To cite this review: Goldin, J. 2023. Review of “Whiteness in engineering: Tracing technology, masculinity and race in Nepal’s development", Himal Books, 2021, by Janwillem Liebrand, Water Alternatives http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/boh/item/348-liebrand
Janwillem’s book is about irrigation and water resources management. In chapter one we explore with the author engineering cultures, masculinity and race in irrigation and unsettled places for expert women in technology and the cultural infrastructure of masculinities in engineering. And as the chapters unfold, we delve with Janwillem deeply into whiteness and its penetration into the world of engineering in Nepal. Calling it whiteness is brave. Whiteness evokes body, it evokes skin and allows for an intimacy that is often absent in more familiar discourses of (de)colonisation. And it is exactly this intimacy which resonates throughout this book and is the distinct mark that Janwillem engraves into often quite stale discourses that have emerged over the past decades, be these on gender more broadly or in particular gender debates in the water sector. State-led masculinity constructs Nepali masculinity based on dominant colonial norms. Whiteness does not stop when the British leave India and the porous ties between Nepal and India mean that whiteness seeped through spaces and shaping today Nepal’s state led masculinity. The title could have been masculinity in engineering but Janwillem has carefully chosen whiteness, an immediate association with colonisation and a normalisation of values and behaviour imposed on Nepalese engineers. Some bodies are noticed whilst others are not. The reflection on body and appearance imposes cognitive dissonance. Someone who has a female body is assumed to be less competent. But the dissonance is also rooted in class where the ‘peasant’ wisdom, farmer expertise, is denigrated.
We emerge from the book with an uncomfortable feeling as we witness deception, disillusionment and something that is very wrong. Masculine identities, building on racial norms in Nepalese society, define who is knowledgeable and what is seen to be good development and ‘modern’ technology. Women are not engineers, but ‘lady’ engineers, reinforcing subservience and discrimination. The landscape of engineering in Nepal tells a story in a particular place under particular circumstances, but it’s a story that is horribly familiar to many of us working on social justice or the ethics of development. This is not a book that should stay on the shelves of scholars working in the water sector. This book is a must for feminist philosophers, for scholars whose concerns are transformation, human rights, well-being and equity and for so many development practioners who grapple with understanding the gap between rhetoric on human justice and equality for all - and practice. And so, telling us this story in a particular time and place, Janwillem breathes new life into sterile debates. Much of the development thinking that led to gender being high up on international platforms in the 80s, still leans toward paternalism, assuming values and standards of well-being defined by masculinity and whiteness. This book is also a must for those who are concerned with the slow violence of the Anthropocene and the gendered (masculine) intrusions and brutality against the natural environment. This violence comes through forcefully in the narratives and also starkly in one particular image (figure 24) of a canal built by men to conquer the environment. Masculinity and whiteness keep the Anthropocene in and perpetuate the slow violence that writers such as Peter Sutoris portray so well. Perhaps Figure 17 (hunted down tiger) - what Janwilllem calls the imperial sportsman masculinity - portrays the Anthropocene at its worst. Within the context of Janwillem’s story, this simple image is a symbol of brutality and arrogant intrusion. Lest we doubt the grip that whiteness and masculinity have in the world of engineering in Nepal, stark visual evidence is provided. The photographs are alarming and the strength of this book is its emotional impact - narrated both visually (nineteen poignant images) – and with a brutally perceptive narrative. Added to this are the telling ‘maps of science’ that provide a rich snapshot of reality and ‘perform’ or ‘breathe’ as they give us a selective view of this reality in a way that words or numbers rarely do.
Janwillem’s tale is particularly powerful as it is also personal. He knows just how deeply rooted and intertwined masculinity and whiteness are. He bravely claims (and shames) his own whiteness. Fuelled by his quest to expose discriminatory injustices, the author carefully follows historical trajectories. He allows for a far more comprehensive analysis of gender through his focus on whiteness, masculinity and engineering. Masculinity feeds off whiteness and vice versa and becomes even more of a ‘wicked’ problem when technology is involved. Those who call the tune and make the rules are white men. Women in Nepal are doubly dismissed because they are ‘ladies’ and then because they are not white. The author makes an unexpected contribution to critical analysis by going deeper into exactly what women are doing when (a)part of engineering teams. When women go into villages they are assigned quite a different role – sanitation and vegetable gardens - to the ‘real’ (and male) engineers the ones who have (supposedly) mastered technology.
With analytic precision – and a nice touch of emotion – Janwillem reflects on the irony that discourses of gender equality, bringing women in, really does nothing more than keep women out. It is here perhaps I might differ from Janwillem. He seems to say that women are kept away from the ‘hard sciences’ and their qualities of softness, nurturing, caring are emphasised rather than their cognitive abilities as professional engineers. The feminine side of an engineer can surely disrupt the ‘normal’ way of seeing the world and bring in a softer, less violent intrusion into the outside world, the natural environment and a different approach to technology. Female attributes are not a hindrance and, instead of women being accepted like men, let them be accepted because they are different. This is not to say that women are not capable of building the bridge but that rather, in their wisdom, perhaps not building the bridge is to be preferred. This tome is a poignant history of whiteness and the author’s deep understanding of colonialism. Whiteness continues to define social privilege and the values and science of engineering. Perhaps, on a more optimistic note, as the author himself asserts, whiteness is not fixed nor is it stable. Whiteness is a way of being and this can change. Subordination of marginalised groups, not only but especially women, can – and must be eradicated. Janwillem is taking giant steps in the right direction.
This book is about power, science, technology and society and as such goes beyond the story of engineering in Nepal. I strongly encourage Janwillem to continue in his pursuit of truth when it comes to whiteness, masculinity and engineering, not just in Nepal but beyond.
