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Burrows, B G and Seymour, D E (1983) The evaluation of change in the construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 1(03), 199-215.

  • Type: Journal Article
  • Keywords: concrete reinforcement; cost benefit; economic appraisal; innovation
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0144-6193
  • URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198300000016
  • Abstract:

    The paper describes the fortunes of a minor technical innovation - purpose-made, steel fabric reinforcement for concrete, and argues, through this example, that the discussion of change, which is formally carried on within ’technical’ and ’economic’ frameworks, must be extended in order to address explicitly the ’political’ implications which are tacitly recognized by practitioners. The term ’political’ is used in its widest sense to encompass the fact that the many parties involved within the construction process promote not only their own interests but different ways in which benefits are described and evaluated. The use of mainstream economics, offering to provide a unitary set of criteria by which to evaluate benefit, submerges this political dimension.