IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/conmgt/v25y2007i5p477-493.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The futures of construction: a critical review of construction future studies

Author

Listed:
  • Chris Harty
  • Chris Ian Goodier
  • Robby Soetanto
  • Simon Austin
  • Andrew R. J. Dainty
  • Andrew D. F. Price

Abstract

Anticipating the future is increasingly being seen as a useful way to align, direct and improve current organizational strategy. Several such 'future studies' have been produced which envision various construction industry scenarios which result from technological and socio-economic trends and influences. Thirteen construction-related future studies are critically reviewed. Most studies fail to address the complexities and uncertainties of both the present and the future, and fail to explore the connections between global, local, construction-specific and more widespread factors. The methodological approaches used in these studies do not generate any significantly different advice or recommendations for the industry than those emerging from the much larger canon of non-future oriented construction research. As such, these reports are less about the future than the present. If future studies are to make a worthwhile contribution to construction, it is critical that they develop our appreciation of the practical ability of stakeholders to influence some aspects of the future and not others, and an awareness of the competing agendas and the relative benefits and disadvantages of specific futures within the construction sector. Only then can future studies provide insights and help in preparing for the opportunities and threats the future may bring.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Harty & Chris Ian Goodier & Robby Soetanto & Simon Austin & Andrew R. J. Dainty & Andrew D. F. Price, 2007. "The futures of construction: a critical review of construction future studies," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 477-493.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:25:y:2007:i:5:p:477-493
    DOI: 10.1080/01446190600879117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446190600879117
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01446190600879117?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hurmekoski, Elias & Jonsson, Ragnar & Nord, Tomas, 2015. "Context, drivers, and future potential for wood-frame multi-story construction in Europe," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 181-196.
    2. Albert Adu-Gyamfi & Michael Poku-Boansi & Leonard Darpoh & Michael Osei Asibey & Justice Kufour Owusu-Ansah, 2023. "Rainfall challenges and strategies to improve housing construction in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Ghana," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(7), pages 1155-1190, August.
    3. Glass, Jacqueline & Dainty, Andrew R.J. & Gibb, Alistair G.F., 2008. "New build: Materials, techniques, skills and innovation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4534-4538, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:25:y:2007:i:5:p:477-493. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RCME20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.