Who Are We Talking To? Situating Construction Engineering and Management Knowledge
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147, Issue 2
Abstract
Gathering knowledge from expert practitioners is a hallmark of construction engineering and management research. However, the knowledge gathered is dependent on the knowledge of the people we talk to. Accordingly, this paper used a content analysis of 12 months of recent technical articles and case study publications in the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management to explore characteristics of research respondents that authors publishing in this journal feel are important to document. Authors report some subset of research respondents’ job type or role, years of experience, subject matter expertise, geography or nationality, organization and sector details, project type, professional qualifications, sex, race and ethnicity, ability, and language. Accordingly, this paper recommends that researchers should report at least these categories, and that researchers also should discuss research limitations that may result from the types of people they collect knowledge from. This change will make visible voices that are dominant or underrepresented in construction engineering and management research. In addition, by eliminating an otherwise unstated limitation, this change will result in improved construction engineering and management science.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Dr. Regina Lee from the University of Washington for many conversations and insights regarding this important topic. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1763204.
References
Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. London: Duke University Press.
BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics). 2019a. “Labor force statistics from the current population survey: Employed persons by detailed industry, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.” Accessed May 19, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18.htm.
BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics). 2019b. “Persons with a disability: Labor force characteristics news release.” Accessed May 19, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/disabl_02262020.htm.
Bonilla-Silva, E. 2006. Racism without racists. Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield.
Chan, P. W. 2013. “Queer eye on a ‘straight’ life: Deconstructing masculinities in construction.” Constr. Manage. Econ. 31 (8): 816–831. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.832028.
Collins, P. H. 2015. “Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas.” Annu. Rev. Sociology 41 (1): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112142.
Comu, S., H. Unsal, and J. E. Taylor. 2011. “Dual impact of cultural and linguistic diversity on project network performance.” J. Manage. Eng. 27 (3): 179–187. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000052.
Crenshaw, K. 1991. “Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color.” Stan. L. Rev. 43 (6): 1241–1299.
Hallowell, M. R., and I. F. Yugar-Arias. 2016. “Exploring fundamental causes of safety challenges faced by Hispanic construction workers in the US using photo voice.” Saf. Sci. 82 (Feb): 199–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.09.010.
Haraway, D. 1988. “Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective.” Feminist Stud. 14 (3): 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066.
Hwang, B.-G., X. Zhao, and K. W. Yang. 2019. “Effect of BIM on rework in construction projects in Singapore: Status quo, magnitude, impact, and strategies.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 145 (2): 04018125. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001600.
Hwang, S., H. Jebelli, B. Choi, M. Choi, and S. Lee. 2018. “Measuring workers’ emotional state during construction tasks using wearable EEG.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (7): 04018050. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001506.
Hyde, J. S. 2005. “The gender similarities hypothesis.” Am. Psychologist 60 (6): 581. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581.
Latour, B. 1988. Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mazher, K. M., A. P. Chan, H. Zahoor, M. I. Khan, and E. E. Ameyaw. 2018. “Fuzzy integral–based risk-assessment approach for public–private partnership infrastructure projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (12): 04018111. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001573.
Miles, M. B., A. M. Huberman, and J. Saldaña. 2013. Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Nguyen, L. H. 2019. “Relationships between critical factors related to team behaviors and client satisfaction in construction project organizations.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 145 (3): 04019002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001620.
Niemann, Y. F. 2016. “Tokenism.” In The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of gender and sexuality studies, 1–2. New York: Wiley.
NSF (National Science Foundation). 2015. “PECASE: Learning from small numbers: Using personal narratives by underrepresented undergraduate students to promote institutional change in engineering education.” Accessed May 19, 2020. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1055900.
Omi, M. 2014. Racial formation in the United States. New York: Routledge.
Pawley, A. L. 2017. “Shifting the ‘default’: The case for making diversity the expected condition for engineering education and making whiteness and maleness visible.” J. Eng. Educ. 106 (4): 531–533. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20181.
Pawley, A. L. 2019. “Learning from small numbers: Studying ruling relations that gender and race the structure of U.S. engineering education.” J. Eng. Educ. 108 (1): 13–31. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20247.
Pereira, E., U. Hermann, S. Han, and S. AbouRizk. 2018. “Case-based reasoning approach for assessing safety performance using safety-related measures.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (9): 04018088. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001546.
Pickering, A. 1999. Constructing quarks. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Poleacovschi, C., and A. Javernick-Will. 2014. “The use and misuse of gender and sex terminologies in civil engineering literature.” In Proc., 121st ASEE Annual Conf. and Exposition. Indianapolis: American Society for Engineering Education.
Saldaña, J. 2009. The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: SAGE.
Sen, A. 2009. The idea of justice. Bristol, UK: Allen Lane.
Siebelink, S., J. Voordijk, and A. Adriaanse. 2018. “Developing and testing a tool to evaluate BIM maturity: Sectoral analysis in the Dutch construction industry.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (8): 05018007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001527.
Simmons, D., J. Iorio, J. Taylor, and D. Li. 2018. “Work values across generations among construction professionals in the United States.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 144 (10): 04018096. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001554.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147 • Issue 2 • February 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 2, 2020
Accepted: Aug 28, 2020
Published online: Nov 20, 2020
Published in print: Feb 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Apr 20, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.