Close R, L M (2013) Community consultation during construction: Attitudes, experiences and skills. In: Smith, S D and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D D (eds.) Proceedings of 29th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2013, Reading, UK.
Abstract
Community consultation is traditionally the domain of urban and town planners. But it is often the case that residual community concerns linger into construction phases as the true impact of construction on the community becomes physically apparent. However, too often community concerns are ignored or badly managed, leading to damaging and often costly disputes which harm communities, the firms involved and the industry as a whole. To better understand the reasons for these practices, theories of community consultation are used to explore the attitudes, experiences and skills of professionals working with the construction phase of projects in consulting the communities in which they build. One hundred and fifty construction professionals involved during construction were surveyed and ten were interviewed. The results indicate that the majority of the construction professionals find the practice of dealing with the community during construction a hindrance and that the process is considered an inconvenient, time-consuming and costly exercise. Very few project managers have any expertise in this area and there is an assumption that community consultation is the responsibility of town planners before work starts on site and that further interaction with the community is not needed.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | community; consultation; risk; skills; project management; construction; education |
| Index terms: | dispute, project manager, town planner, exercise, project management, interaction, construction phase, community consultation, construction professional |
| Subjects: | behavioral psychology, project management theory and practice, professional development, project delivery, participation process, health behaviours and lifestyles, dispute resolution, profession |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Health and Safety, Information Management, Research Practice, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
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