Dr Dylan Tutt

- Departmental Director of Academic Tutoring (PG)
- Module Convenor, International Construction Labour Markets: Migrant Workers and Emerging Economies (CEME02)
Areas of interest
Dylan's qualitative research focuses on social interaction, communication and technology in complex organisational environments, although he maintains a wider interest in quite diverse areas of cultural sociology, stemming from his background in sociology and visual culture.
Dylan specialises in ethnographic and video-based studies of communication and (work) practice in diverse settings, including constructions sites, Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs), hospitals, GP clinics and the home.
Most recently, Dylan has been pursuing his strong research interest in migrant workers, construction employment patterns, and the practice and management of occupational health and safety (especially of vulnerable workers).
These topics are particularly crucial in relation to emerging economies, where the huge potential of markets for investment can be accompanied by huge resources of low-cost labour. Dylan's research has involved ethnographic methods and practice-based approaches to the study of knowing, learning and change in complex organisations.
Dylan has also explored ways to apply these ethnographic studies to the development and design of new systems and technologies, including helping to design an ethnographic research methodology to investigate and evaluate communication channels for health and safety information in the construction industry.
Dylan has recently finished co-editing a book with Sarah Pink and Andy Dainty for Routledge entitled Ethnographic Research in the Construction Industry.
Research centres and groups
- Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC)
- Innovative Construction Research Centre
- Research Centre for Developing Economics and Emerging Markets (DEEM).
Background
Dylan joined the University of Reading as a Senior Research Fellow in October 2010, as part of a capacity building fellowship at the Innovative Construction Research Centre (ICRC). This research investigated how social science perspectives, rooted in ethnographic research on construction sites and with construction workers themselves, can help to address some of the urgent concerns raised by the nature of the industry and the conditions of working in it.
In the five years prior to this, Dylan developed his expertise in workplace studies and applied ethnographic studies in the construction and healthcare sectors during research fellow posts based at the Work, Interaction & Technology Centre (King's College London), the Centre for Practice and Service Improvement (University of Staffordshire), and the School of Civil & Building Engineering (Loughborough University).
During his time at Reading, Dylan has also enjoyed working with the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC), including qualitative research into how the home and other existing healthcare spaces are being reconfigured and refurbished to facilitate frail elderly care, and the large sociotechnical challenges which this poses.
A second strand of ongoing research (with Dr Chris Harty) draws on Dylan's interest in digital technologies and organisational practices, and involves video-based field studies of the use of collaborative 3D immersive environments (such as the CAVE) in "real world" construction and design.
Academic qualifications
- PhD in Sociology, Lancaster University (2005). Thesis title: Making Yourself at Home with Media: A Video Ethnography of Interactions with Media in the Living Room
- MA (with distinction) in Visual Culture, Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University (2001)
- BA (Hons) American Studies, Lancaster University (2000).
Selected publications
- Tutt, Dylan and Jon Hindmarsh (2009), "The Screen Deconstructed: the Malleable Screen as an Artefact of Material Culture" in Material Culture and Technology in Everyday Life: Ethnographic Approaches. Edited by Phillip Vannini. New York: Peter Lang.
- Tutt, Dylan (2008), "Where the Interaction Is: Collisions of the Situated and Mediated in Living Room Interactions", Qualitative Inquiry, 14: 1157-1179.
- Tutt, Dylan (2008), "'Tactical' Living: A Situated Study of Teenagers' Negotiations around and Interactions with Living Room Media", Environment & Planning A, Volume 40: 2330- 2345.
- Tutt, Dylan, Jon Hindmarsh, Muneeb Shaukat and Mike Fraser (2007), "The Distributed Work of Local Action: Interaction amongst virtually collocated research teams", Proceeding of the 10th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). London: Springer-Verlag.
- Tutt, Dylan (2005), "Mobile Performances of a Teenager: A Study of Situated Mobile Phone Activity in the Living Room", Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol. 11 (2): 58-75.
Publications
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Fellows, M.
,
Phua, F.
ORCID: 0000-0001-5736-5973 , Tutt, D. (2023) Building bridges: the bilingual language work of migrant construction workers. Construction Management and Economics , 41 (2). pp. 153-171. ISSN: 0144-6193 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2151022
- Grytnes, R. , Tutt, D. , Andersen, L. (2020) Developing safety cooperation in construction: between facilitating independence and tightening the grip. Construction Management and Economics , 38 (11). pp. 977-992. ISSN: 0144-6193 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1726978
- Tutt, D. and Pink, S. (2019) Refiguring global construction challenges through ethnography. Construction Management and Economics , 37 (9). pp. 475-480. ISSN: 0144-6193 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1643570
- Hamid, W. and Tutt, D. (2019) “Thrown away like a banana leaf”: precarity of labour and precarity of place for Tamil migrant construction workers in Singapore. Construction Management and Economics , 37 (9). pp. 513-536. ISSN: 0144-6193 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1595075
- Patel, H. and Tutt, D. (2018) ‘This Building Is Never Complete’: studying adaptations of a library building over time. In: Sage, D. and Vitry, C. , (eds.) Societies Under Construction: Geographies, Sociologies and Histories of Building. Palgrave Macmillan ISBN: 9783319739953 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73996-0
- Dent, M. and Tutt, D. (2014) Electronic patient information systems and care pathways: the organisational challenges of implementation and integration. Health informatics journal , 20 (3). pp. 176-188. ISSN: 1460-4582 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1460458213518545
- Shipton, C. , Hughes, W. , Tutt, D. (2014) Change management in practice: an ethnographic study of changes to contract requirements on a hospital project. Construction Management and Economics , 32 (7-8). pp. 787-803. ISSN: 0144-6193 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.915336 (special Issue: ARCOM Conference Issue)
- Tutt, D. , Pink, S. , Dainty, A. , Gibb, A. (2013) Building networks to work: an ethnographic study of informal routes into the UK construction industry and pathways for migrant up-skilling. Construction Management and Economics , 31 (10). pp. 1025-1037. ISSN: 1466-433X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.834066
- Tutt, D. , Pink, S. , Dainty, A. , Gibb, A. (2013) ‘In the air’ and below the horizon: migrant workers in UK construction and the practice-based nature of learning and communicating OHS. Construction Management and Economics , 31 (6). pp. 515-527. ISSN: 1466-433X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.756145
- Pink, S. , Tutt, D. , Dainty, A. (2013) Introducing ethnographic research in the construction industry . In: PInk, S. , Tutt, D. , Dainty, A. , (eds.) Ethnographic Research in the Construction Industry. Routledge Advances in Sociology Routledge pp. 1-22. ISBN: 9780415603430
- PInk, S. , Tutt, D. , Dainty, A. , eds. (2013) Ethnographic research in the construction industry. Routledge Advances in Sociology Routledge pp 208. ISBN: 9780415603430
- Tutt, D. , Dainty, A. , Pink, S. , Gibb, A. (2012) "We’ve Got Our Own Language": the communication practices of migrant workers in the UK construction industry. Ethnographic Research in the Construction Industry. Routledge Advances in Sociology Routledge ISBN: 9780415603430
- Hindmarsh, J. and Tutt, D. (2012) Video in analytic practice. In: Pink, S. , (eds.) Advances in Visual Methodology. Sage pp. 57-73. ISBN: 9780857028495
- Waterson, P. , Eason, K. , Tutt, D. , Dent, M. (2012) Using HIT to deliver integrated care for the frail elderly in the UK: current barriers and future challenges. Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation , 41 (Supplement). pp. 4490-4493. ISSN: 1051-9815 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3233/WOR-2012-0750-4490 (IEA 2012: 18th World Congress on Ergonomics - Designing a sustainable future)
- Tutt, D. and Hindmarsh, J. (2011) Reenactments at work: demonstrating conduct in data sessions. Research on Language & Social Interaction , 44 (3). pp. 211-236. ISSN: 1532-7973 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2011.591765
- Tutt, D. (2010) Ethnographic methodologies for construction research: knowing, practice and interventions . Building Research and Information , 38 (6). pp. 647-659. ISSN: 0961-3218 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2010.512193
- Tutt, D. and Hindmarsh, J. (2009) The screen deconstructed: video-based studies of the malleable screen. In: Vannini, P. , (eds.) Material Culture and Technology in Everyday Life: Ethnographic Approaches. Intersections in Communications and Culture Peter Lang (25). , New York. pp. 115-129. ISBN: 9781433103018
- Tutt, D. (2008) Where the interaction is: collisions of the situated and mediated in living room interactions. Qualitative Inquiry , 14 (7). pp. 1157 -1179. ISSN: 1552-7565 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800408322227
- Tutt, D. (2008) `Tactical' living: a situated study of teenagers' negotiations around and interactions with living room media. Environment and Planning A , 40 (10). pp. 2330 -2345. ISSN: 1472-3409 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a39385
- Tutt, D. , Hindmarsh, J. , Shaukat, M. , Fraser, M. (2007) The distributed work of local action: interaction amongst virtually collocated research teams . In: Bannon, L. , Wagner, I. , Gutwin, C. , Harper, R. , Schmidt, K. , (eds.) ECSCW’07: Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Limerick, Ireland, 24-28 September 2007. Springer pp. 199-218. ISBN: 9781848000308