  The smartification of industries is marked by the development of
cyber-physical systems, interfaces, and intelligent software featuring
knowledge models, empirical real-time data, and feedback-loops. This brings up
new requirements and challenges for HMI design and industrial labor. Social
sciences can contribute to such engineering projects with their perspectives,
concepts and knowledge. Hence, we claim that, in addition to following their
own intellectual curiosities, the social sciences can and should contribute to
such projects in terms of an 'applied' science, helping to foster
interdisciplinary collaboration and providing toolkits and devices for what we
call 'interdisciplinary diplomacy'. We illustrate the benefits of such an
approach, support them with selected examples of our involvement in such an
engineering project and propose using methods as diplomatic devices and
concepts as social theory plug-ins. The article ends with an outlook and
reflection on the remaining issue of whether and in how far such 'applied' and
critical social science can or should be integrated.
