Wood, G D (2012) Research, practice and education in the built environment. PhD thesis, University of Salford, UK.
Abstract
This thesis consists of two parts: the body of published work is presented as a portfolio of 10 publications and forms Part II. Part I consists of a critical review of those publications. In the context of the built environment sector, the overarching themes of the published works are the relationships between: research and emerging concepts in the field and the working practices of construction and property professionals; practice as an interdisciplinary activity and educational programmes; programmes and curricula within higher education and the relevance of research. The critical review explores the portfolio from a micro and macro perspective to demonstrate that the work is considered at an individual publication level, and also within the extended boundaries of the discipline. This opens up broader horizons and assists in comparing the knowledge claims being made with other key benchmark publications. The principal conclusion associated with the research-practice relationship is that practitioners are largely driven by commercial imperatives and the associated need to solve problems expediently. Positivist perspectives therefore have more influence on built environment practitioners than constructivist methodologies. This should inform the design of research projects if researchers wish to be relevant to practice. The main finding linked to the practice-education relationship is that normative interdisciplinarity requiring a collaborative transcendence is more relevant to built environment practice than a phenomenological position where interdisciplinarity exists within the individual. This should inform the design of undergraduate built environment curricula in order to adequately prepare students for practice. In the education-research relationship this thesis concludes that there is a need to develop a more comprehensive definition of scholarship or scholarly activity in support of built environment education to include applied/consultancy-based research, market-based studies, professional updating and the writing of textbooks. This should inform both the recruitment and promotion processes within universities.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | built environment; commercial; education; higher education; recruitment; graduate; professional; market |
| Index terms: | consultancy, boundaries, publication, built environment education, practitioner, methodology, programme, recruitment, built environment, undergraduate, higher education, working practice, promotion |
| Subjects: | research methods, curriculum development, property law, research dissemination and communication, organization, practitioner, project controls, educational institutions, infrastructure and transport systems, management, professional development |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Education, Urban Studies, Human Resources, Time Control, Organizational Design, Information Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here