Libby Schweber

• PhD Sociology
• Professor at University of Reading

Qualitative research has a great deal to offer Construction Management Research, most notably in the way in which the judicious use of theory moves research beyond common sense and introduces new and interesting ways of thinking about recognized problems. However, this contribution is often compromised by a positivist use of the interpretivist appr...

Competitive tendering is the default procurement route for most types of construction projects in the UK. As a process, it is costly, time-consuming and complicated, involving input from upwards of 200 separate organisations per project. Existing research has mainly focused on identifying discrete factors that influence contractor pricing. While ma...

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to explore the dominant ideas in research on the management of time in construction. The focus of research has been to improve techniques for optimising the timing and sequence of activities. Design/Methodology/Approach – A critical review of research on construction time management, challenging the typical fo...

Environmental policy in Western countries is marked by extensive reliance on voluntary self-regulation, designed to influence market behavior. In many instances, these policy tools fail to deliver on their promise, while nonetheless influencing professional and user behavior. This paper draws on Foucault's theory of govern-mentality and the Sociolo...

Abstract: The accommodation of client expectations in a construction project is challenging. This is, in part, because a client is rarely a single individual and their expectations are rarely static. This paper uses the actor network theory (ANT) concepts of problematization, enrolment and durability to explore client engagement. The contribution o...

Renewable technologies often feature in policies to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Designers introduce predicted energy values for specific technologies, but are surprised when the technologies fail to perform as expected. Three building projects are used to explore the effect of construction processes on the energy performance of buil...

Attention to epistemology, theory use and citation practices are all issues which distinguish academic disciplines from other ways of knowing. Examples from construction research are used to outline and reflect on these issues. In doing so, the discussion provides an introduction to some key issues in social research as well as a reflection on the...

Current approaches for the reduction of carbon emissions in buildings are often predicated on the integration of renewable technologies into building projects. Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is one of these technologies and brings its own set of challenges and problems with a resulting mutual articulation of this technology and the buildi...

In 2006 the UK Government announced a move to zero-carbon homes by 2016. The demand posed a major challenge to policy-makers and construction professionals entailing a protracted process of policy design. The task of giving content to this target is used to explore the role of evidence in the policy process. Whereas much literature on policy and ev...

Innovative, low carbon technologies are already available for use in the construction of buildings, but the impact of their specification on construction projects is unclear. This exploratory research identifies issues which arise following the specification of BIPV in non-residential construction projects. Rather than treating the inclusion of a n...

There is a widespread assumption that clientsÕ expectations should be accommodated during a building project. However, there may be conflicting expectations within a client organization and these may change over time in the course of a project. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is used to study the incorporation of client expectations into the on-going de...

Project team dynamics may be affected by mismatches between formal and informal sources of expectations. Conflicting or unclear expectations have not yet been studied closely in construction projects. Using role theory, the effect of such phenomena on project team dynamics was studied in construction projects. Most research into role theory relies...

This paper explores the mapping of the environmental assessment process onto design and construction processes. A comparative case study method is used to identify and account for variations in the ‘fit’ between these two processes. The analysis compares eight BREEAM projects (although relevant to LEED, GreenStar, etc.) and distinguishes project-le...

The UK government's support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of Building Research Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) as a preferred policy mechanism exemplifies neoliberal use of voluntary self-regulation to promote policy goals. This p...

The effects and influence of the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Methods (BREEAM) on construction professionals are examined. Most discussions of building assessment methods focus on either the formal tool or the finished product. In contrast, BREEAM is analysed here as a social technology using Michel Foucault's theory o...

The construction sector has a major role to play in delivering the transition to a low carbon economy and in contributing to sustainable development; however, integrating sustainability into everyday business remains a major challenge for the sector. This research explores the experience of three large construction and engineering consultancy firms...

The past decade has witnessed a sharp increase in published research on energy and buildings. This paper takes stock of work in this area, with a particular focus on construction research and the analysis of non-technical dimensions. While there is widespread recognition of the importance of non-technical dimensions, research tends to be limited to...

We explore the contribution of socio-technical networks approaches to construction management research. These approaches are distinctive for their analysis of actors and objects as mutually constituted within socio-technical networks. They raise questions about the ways in which the content, meaning and use of technology is negotiated in practice,...

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is frequently portrayed as a vehicle for change for the UK construction sector. Significant change in the working practices of construction companies is predicted as new business models based on whole-life value creation emerge. This paper shifts the focus of discussion from projected ideals and possible develop...

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I. The Struggle for Disciplinary Recognition: Why "Invent" a Discipline in Nineteenth-Century France 1. The "Invention" of Demography, 1853-1855 35 2. The Neglect of Demography, 1855-1867 49 3. The Reinvention of Demography, 1867-1878 67 Part II. The Institutionalization of Vital Statistics in England: How to...

This commentary seeks to complement the contribution of the Building Research and Information special issue on 'Developing Theories for the Built Environment' (2008) by highlighting the important role of middle-range theories within the context of professional practice. Middle-range theories provide a form of theorizing that lies between abstract g...

« The American Soldier », a four-volume study published on the basis of war-time research, provides a window into a turning point in the history of American sociology. The book heralded the ascendance of statistics as the authoritative method and an associated rise of instrumental positivism as the dominant style of reasoning. An examination of the...

Controversies and Styles of Reasoning. Debates over Population Statistics in 19th century France and England. The sociology of science tends to treat controversies as a privileged object to document the heterogeneity of considerations at play in the production of scientific knowledge. An examination of 19th century debates over the use of mortality...

■ Libby Schweber: L'echec de la demographie en France au XIXe siecle ? Le Congres international de demographie de 1878 offre une occasion de reflechir a la signification du «succes» et de l'« echec» scientifiques. La demographie entendait utiliser les statistiques pour etablir des lois et des causalites. Elle voulait aussi en faire un outil pour fo...

"La politique des grands nombres" d'Alain Desrosières et "La mesure de l'Etat" d'Eric Brain sont consacrés à l'histoire des statistiques ou des mathématiques, dans leurs liaisons avec les sciences sociales et l'administration. Une comparaison de l'approche théorique développée dans ces deux ouvrages permet d'examiner ce que les développements récen...

Fichier pdf généré le 23/04/2018 Resumen Libby Schweber : La historia de la estadística, laboratorio para una teoría social. "La politique des grands nombres" (La política de los grandes números) de Alain Desrosières y "La mesure de l'Etat" (La medida del Estado) de Eric Brian estan consagradas a la historia de las estadísticas o de las matemáticas...