Trialling a new approach to interdisciplinary collaboration in UK construction: a projects-as-practice analysis

Connaughton, J. N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8878-8589 and Collinge, W. H. (2021) Trialling a new approach to interdisciplinary collaboration in UK construction: a projects-as-practice analysis. Construction Management and Economics, 39 (7). pp. 595-616. ISSN 0144-6193 doi: 10.1080/01446193.2021.1933558

Abstract/Summary

This paper investigates the emergence of collaboration on a UK construction project pioneering a novel form of project procurement (Integrated Project Insurance: IPI). Using a projects-as-practice lens and an action research approach, examination of linked episodes of project activity chart the unfolding of collaboration praxis in an IPI context through the frequent interplays of praxis (situated doings), practice (rules, values, policies) and practitioners working together. The analysis focuses on important requirements in IPI: that project practitioners, supported by a facilitator, collaborate to develop joint solutions to project requirements and share responsibility for them. Findings show how practitioners understood how to collaborate through the progressive enactment of working together rather than by developing a prior agreement about what collaboration would involve. Thus, the doing of collaboration mattered more than sayings about it in how practitioners created meaning in developing new collaboration praxis. Through this enactment the facilitator role is understood more as a practitioner in the development of collaboration praxis than solely as a convenor of collaboration. Findings also show how the micro-activities of practitioners may be illuminated using a projects-as-practice lens combined with a focus on interconnected episodes of project life to understand the emergence of praxis on construction projects.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/88828
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of the Built Environment > Organisation, People and Technology group
Uncontrolled Keywords	action research; collaboration; construction projects; social practice; project insurance; projects-as-practice
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
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