Clarke, L and Janssen, J (2008) A historical context for theories underpinning the production of the built environment. Building Research & Information, 36(6), pp. 659-662. ISSN 0961-3218
Abstract
The quest for 'theory' in the Building Research and Information special issue 'Developing Theories of the Built Environment' (36(3) 2008) needs to be understood within a larger historical and political context. It would benefit from engaging with a rich vein of work on the production of the built environment over the last 30 years. Theory inherently develops in the political context in which it exists; if it fails to do so, it may be dangerous. This commentary traces the intellectual underpinning concerned with understanding the process of change in the built environment, particularly the result of changes in social relations and the social labour process. The production of the built environment is seen as encompassing all the social processes concerned with producing the built environment, built products, buildings and infrastructure, and out of natural resources, whilst consumption is applied to all the processes involved in consuming these, including the well-being of tenants. And between these are situated the processes of exchange, distribution, and circulation, involving complex webs of relations between developers, builders, and landlords and landowners. The challenge is not only to engage and learn from past work, but also to state explicitly what is currently driving the need for a theory (or set of theories).
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | built environment; conceptual frameworks; consumption; labour process; political framework; production; social relations |
| Index terms: | builder, natural resource, tenant, landlord, circulation, building research, consumption, conceptual framework, built environment, well-being, social process |
| Subjects: | environmental resource management, mental health and wellbeing, consumer economics, practitioner, sociology, research management, infrastructure and transport systems, communities and social development, theoretical framing, urban design |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Sustainability, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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