Ethnographic Research in Construction

Start date: October 2010

End Date: December 2011

Project status: Current

• Introduction 
• Communication of Safety Knowledge
• Virtual Ward and Home Refurbishment
• Publications

Introduction

The construction industry as a workplace is commonly portrayed by social scientists and construction academics as problematic for a number of reasons, including:

• its worrying health and safety record;
• the instability of its workforce, with casualized employment practices and the power-relations that frame it;
• the poorly regulated nature of the sector in general.

These issues are of course highly context-specific, with the intensity of the experience dependent on the varied cultural, economic, political and policy frames.

As part of a capacity building fellowship, this research project has started to investigate how social science perspectives can help to address some of the urgent concerns raised by the nature of the industry and the conditions of working in it.

Most recently Dr Tutt has been investigating how interdisciplinary construction ethnography can bridge the gap between applied and theoretical research. This forms the basis for interventions in policy and workplace contexts and informs new empirical and theoretical understandings of construction work. The ICRC is uniquely well placed to undertake such endeavours, having a strong social science presence and expertise in socio-technical systems whilst also strongly encouraging interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work.

This work is rooted in Dr Dylan Tutt's ethnographic research on construction sites and with construction workers themselves, and falls within two distinct research streams.

Communication of Safety Knowledge

Everyday practices on construction sites involve countless examples of successful communications and safe working practices involving migrant workers. Thus a key concern of the research has been with how communication already does and might further take place within a multi-cultural workforce with varied levels of English language skills.

The localised tacit knowledge base developed by migrant workers provides examples in and patterns of successful communication used to avoid health and safety problems. These can be advanced as a basis for the development of improved health and safety measures, and of greater organisational knowing and learning.

The work also seeks to gain a better qualitative understanding of migrant workers' experiences in construction, both in and out of work (looking at offsite contexts in relation to their welfare onsite).

This work draws from applied ethnographic research carried out for the UK Sector Skills Council for construction, ConstructionSkills, with Professors Sarah Pink and Andy Dainty at Loughborough University.

Collaborations

Work has begun on a book exploring thematic elements in the development of contemporary and emergent ethnographic research in and about the construction industry.  This is co-edited with Professors Pink and Dainty and will be published by Routledge. The collection will draw on different ethnographic approaches and case studies taken from diverse national, cultural and workplace contexts. It will address the growing interest in the built environment within ethnographic research, and the increasing recognition of what social science can contribute to engineering and management disciplines.

Virtual Ward and Home Refurbishment

With the task (and cost) of supporting a rapidly aging population, there has been an increasing shift within the NHS to providing 'care within a person's own home' or elsewhere in the community. As such, this work focuses on the redesign and implementation of the Frail Elderly Pathway (FEP) in a Midlands PCT, against the backdrop of economic pressures on the NHS. This has involved following the early development of 'Virtual Ward' IT architecture and work processes.

The research has two key areas of focus:

• How the co-development of the necessary technical and social systems is facilitated in home settings;
• How the negotiation of organizational/trust boundaries is allowing other existing healthcare spaces to be reconfigured and refurbished to facilitate Frail Elderly care.

Collaborations

Collaboration is continuing between the NIHR SDO (National Institute for Health Research, Service Delivery Organisation) project team (at Loughborough and Staffordshire Universities).  This includes attendance at the operational group meetings with informatics and healthcare staff (Clinical Reference and Implementation groups). Dr Tutt is also building collaborative work with HaCIRIC under the "Home not hospital" theme, exploring how existing healthcare infrastructure can be efficiently maintained/refurbished and how healthcare spaces can be refigured.

Publications