The use of ethnographic accounts for understanding culture in construction

Rooke, JA; Seymour, D

Abstract

Culture, in the sense of a way of life, is increasingly seen as a topic worthy of study within the construction management community. There are two major reasons for this: i) recognition that the changed practices which the industry is required to undergo are inhibited by convictions about what is normal, right and proper, i.e. the existing culture; ii) recognition that increasingly global markets require people from many different nationalities and backgrounds to work together. However, while there is agreement that culture is important, there is less agreement about how most usefully to conceptualise it, study it and demonstrate the ways in which its assumed importance actually manifests itself. A major feature of the disagreement is between those who try to achieve a 'deep' understanding of a culture by extensive participation in it - the ethnographic route; and those who seek to provide an objective account, analysed into components which may be used as factors in a variable analysis. Hitherto, in construction industry research, it has been the second approach that researchers have generally taken. In this paper, we present some findings of a study of construction projects which has taken the former route and consider what can be learnt from them.

Citation

Rooke, J., & Seymour, D. The use of ethnographic accounts for understanding culture in construction. Presented at Joint Meeting of CIB Working Commissions W55/W65 and Task Groups TG23/TG31/TG35, University of Reading

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: Joint Meeting of CIB Working Commissions W55/W65 and Task Groups TG23/TG31/TG35
• Conference Location: University of Reading
• End Date: Sep 15, 2000
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2000
• Deposit Date: Dec 2, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference