Accounting for knowledge embedded in physical objects and environments : the role of artefacts in transferring knowledge

The intention to investigate the role of artefacts (objects and environments) in codifying, embedding and disseminating knowledge was inspired by an awareness that organisations across all sectors are increasingly being asked not only to provide products in the first instance, but also to support them throughout their service life. Thus a move from product-delivery to product-service designs is suggested. This paper considers ways in which knowledge can be embedded into the physical properties of artefacts and how this can consequently aid the dissemination and management of knowledge in and across stages of life cycles. A literature review and fieldwork based on an ethnomethodological approach are used to investigate this topic. Accounts of the situated meaning of artefacts within social processes are obtained using ethnographic armchair research. Unique adequacy is used to achieve an understanding of how people make sense of artefacts. The initial findings of the current research show that knowledge can be embedded or encoded into the physical properties of artefacts and that this can be successfully transferred from artefact to user

Construction management research and the attempt to build a social science

The paper challenges the view that the major theoretical and methodological issues in the social sciences have been resolved and that positivism provides the only sound basis for research in construction. By examining the relationship between specialist discourses and natural language and Weber's failure to provide a basis for objective causal explanations of social action, it is argued that the kind of theorising that Runeson advocates is at best premature and at worst preempts the achievement of a more rigorous and thorough understanding of construction processes. Reporting some empirical research on the design and construction of reinforced concrete structures, the paper seeks to demonstrate some theoretical methodological and practical implications of an interpretive style of research