Article Green Open Access 2016

Expert knowledge in the making: using a processual lens to examine expertise in construction

Construction Management and Economics
Journal · Vol. 34 · Issue 7-8 · pp. 471-483
Abstract

Expertise in construction has typically been associated with the esoteric, where experts occupy privileged positions through their possession of specialist skills and knowledge. In this conceptual piece, an attempt is made to broaden this view of expertise found in the construction management literature by drawing on a reading of the process philosophical writings of Henri Bergson and others. Re-reading expertise from a processual standpoint, it is argued that our conceptualization of expertise in construction management should move beyond its treatment as a thing to bring to the fore expertise as an open-ended, ongoing, ever-evolving process of becoming. At the heart of this ontological shift of expertise in construction lies the emphasis on the tacit and recognition that expertise is, at the same time, interactional, intuitive and incidental. These ideas are illustrated in a vignette of environmental expertise in an airport context. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

becoming Intuition La durée (duration) Organization theory Process philosophy

Index Keywords

Construction industry Project management conceptual framework philosophy Philosophical aspects management practice Expert knowledge Construction management theoretical study organizational framework Ontology expert system Becoming intuition Organization theory
Author Affiliations
Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE), The University of Manchester, Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Funding & Acknowledgements
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC
Grant: EP/H004505/1
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