Abstracts – Browse Results

Search or browse again.

Click on the titles below to expand the information about each abstract.
Viewing 1 results ...

Close R and Loosemore M (2013) Community consultation during construction: attitudes, experiences and skills. In: Smith, S D and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D D (Eds.), Proceedings 29th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2013, Reading, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 849–858.

  • Type: Conference Proceedings
  • Keywords: community, consultation, risk, skills, project management, construction, education
  • ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-9552390-7-6
  • URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2013-0849-0858_Close_Loosemore.pdf
  • 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.