Control, surveillance and the 'dark side' of BIM

Various BIM (building information modelling) technologies are increasingly being positioned as a way to improve coordination horizontally across construction disciplines and vertically between design, construction, manufacture and, increasingly, facility management. The arguments for implementing BIM are persuasive, with potentially significant savings in terms of reducing the re-working of information across the supply chain, and reducing the high levels of physical waste generated. They are also now supported by the recent UK government mandate to use BIM on public projects by 2016. But there are other more problematic considerations with the mobilization of integrated information management systems, especially around issues of control, surveillance and power. Primarily drawing on Foucault inspired studies of information systems use and surveillance in this paper we look at some of these implications for the division of labour and for control during the construction process. We use empirical material from two longitudinal case studies of BIM implementation; a new airport terminal and two large PFI hospitals, both in the UK. We draw out the issues around the potential and limitations of this technology as a method of imposing control across disciplines and down the supply chain. Whether these technological change initiatives are initially intended to be an instrument of leveraging control over other actors is difficult to ascertain, but our empirical evidence shows that negotiations over who has the power to enforce or resist the technology and processes supporting it are fundamental in shaping how implementation plays out.