Final published version
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards a new theory of construction innovation
T2 - a socio-material analysis of classification work
AU - Sage, D.
AU - Vitry, C.
AU - Dainty, A.
AU - Barnard, S.
PY - 2021/8/31
Y1 - 2021/8/31
N2 - There has been a longstanding concern among construction scholars and practitioners in classifying construction innovations, whether as “incremental” or “radical,” “technological” or “organizational,” “product” or “process”. In this paper we extend this interest in classification to examine what classification work accomplishes within construction innovation practices. Instead of addressing the validity of innovation categories as objective representations we explore how innovations are classified within everyday interactions that shape how they proliferate. Our approach is informed by socio-material theories of classification, communication and innovation, particularly those from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Ventriloquial Analysis (VA). Empirically, our approach is developed through an analysis of how a single innovation–a large format concrete block–was classified within a single warranty approval meeting as it entered the UK housing market. Our analysis explains how such classification work is dynamically constituted by formal and informal classificatory acts that involve displacements of human agency that shape how construction innovations proliferate. Classification work is thus shown to make a vital difference to how construction innovation is accomplished and can be understood. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
AB - There has been a longstanding concern among construction scholars and practitioners in classifying construction innovations, whether as “incremental” or “radical,” “technological” or “organizational,” “product” or “process”. In this paper we extend this interest in classification to examine what classification work accomplishes within construction innovation practices. Instead of addressing the validity of innovation categories as objective representations we explore how innovations are classified within everyday interactions that shape how they proliferate. Our approach is informed by socio-material theories of classification, communication and innovation, particularly those from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Ventriloquial Analysis (VA). Empirically, our approach is developed through an analysis of how a single innovation–a large format concrete block–was classified within a single warranty approval meeting as it entered the UK housing market. Our analysis explains how such classification work is dynamically constituted by formal and informal classificatory acts that involve displacements of human agency that shape how construction innovations proliferate. Classification work is thus shown to make a vital difference to how construction innovation is accomplished and can be understood. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
KW - actor network theory
KW - communication
KW - Innovation
KW - Social sciences computing
KW - Actor network theory
KW - Construction innovation
KW - Housing markets
KW - Human agency
KW - Large format
KW - Material analysis
KW - New theory
KW - Objective representation
KW - Concrete blocks
U2 - 10.1080/01446193.2021.1938160
DO - 10.1080/01446193.2021.1938160
M3 - Journal article
VL - 39
SP - 637
EP - 651
JO - Construction Management and Economics
JF - Construction Management and Economics
SN - 0144-6193
IS - 8
ER -