Staff Profile:Dr Libby Schweber

Name:

Dr Libby Schweber

Job Title:

Reader in the Sociology of Sustainable Construction

Responsibilities:

Principal Research Fellow

Areas of Interest:

Sustainability in the Construction Sector, Assessment Tools, Strategic change, Socio-technical networks, Sociology of Organizations, Sociology of Science

Research groups / Centres:

Innovative Construction Research Centre

Publications:

Y

Jump to: 2012 | 2010 | 2008 | 2006 | 2004

Number of items: 6.

2012

• Schweber, L. and Leiringer, R. T. F. (2012) Beyond the technical: A snapshot of energy and buildings research. Building Research and Information. BR7301. ISSN 0961-3218 (In Press) (special issue 'Challenges and opportunities in energy and buildings research')

2010

• Schweber, L. and Leiringer, R. (2010) Managing multiple markets: big firms and PFI. Building Research and Information, 38 (2). pp. 131-143. ISSN 0961-3218 doi: 10.1080/09613210903027147
• Schweber, L. and Harty, C. (2010) Actors and objects: A socio-technical networks approach for construction management research. Construction Management and Economics, 28 (6). pp. 657-674. ISSN 0144-6193 doi: 10.1080/01446191003702468

2008

• Green, S. D. and Schweber, L. (2008) Forum theorizing in the context of professional practice: The case for middle-range theories. Building Research and Information, 36 (6). pp. 649-654. ISSN 1466-4321 doi: 10.1080/09613210802423512

2006

• Schweber, L. (2006) Disciplining statistics: demography and vital statistics in France and England, 1830–1885. Duke University Press, pp288. ISBN 9780822338147

2004

• Schweber, L. (2004) Louis Adolphe Bertillon. In: Kempf-Leonard, K. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Social Measurement. San Diego Academic Press, pp. 53-61. ISBN 9780124438903

This list was generated on Mon May 21 05:00:21 2012 BST.

Qualifications:

BA Harvard University
MA Hebrew University
MA Princeton University
PhD Princeton University

My academic career can be divided into two related, but distinct phase. In the first part I specialized in the Sociology of Knowledge and Comparative Historical Sociology. I first developed this interest while working on my PhD for Princeton, much of which was written in Paris as a visiting student at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes. This work focused on the effect of national state and scientific institutions on styles of reasoning. I pursued this work in Berlin at the Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte before taking a position at Harvard University as an Assistant, and then Associate, Professor in the Department of Sociology. In 2003 I moved to the University of Reading as Reader and Head of the Department of Sociology, where I continued my work on styles of reasoning.

The second phase of my academic career began in 2008 when I joined the ICRC to develop a research programme on sustainable construction. This research applies my interest in the sociology of science and technology to a new object, namely large construction firms. While the theoretical frameworks and research questions are similar, the move has introduced me to a world of engineers, architects and industry partners and allowed me to engage in an exciting, contemporary field of research. My work focuses on the way in which large construction and engineering consultancy firms have responded to the challenges of sustainable construction.
I am particularly interested in strategic change management, the use of social technologies and the relation between innovation and standardization. Specific research projects include the integration of assessment tools such as BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes into the design process, mainstreaming sustainability in large construction firms, the uptake of micro-generation technologies, the diffusion of innovations in retrofit.