Mind the gap, a personal view of knowledge work in UK construction
October 23, 2008

Here’s a draft of an essay I wrote for the College of Estate Management last October, which I’m taking a fresh look at now. I took on the commission for three reasons

• to update my own professional knowledge on knowledge stuff, in particular to reposition my thinking on knowledge transfer, knowledge economies, et al while we were doing the MLA research
• to look at an industry which is inherently interesting in it’s complexity, bursting with innovation in likely and unlikely ways, difficult supply chains, project amnesia, risk everywhere, gaps everywhere, everyone from a plasterer to an specialist on disability or sustainable construction or an architect has a role to play, loss of apprenticeship systems in the UK, role of professional associations and so on
• to try my hand at writing something very personal with secret invitations to the reader/user, for whom English might be a second or third or even fourth langauge, to reflect on their own knowledge habits and practices.

It’s rather a worms eye view in some respects and superficial in others, as I had to do it in very short order (and the pay for this kind of stuff is pretty rotten, as all blithely admit).

In any case I’m posting it here because I think it holds something of interest more general than the circumstances of its genesis. And I want to look it over and perhaps rewrite it into a couple of new circumstances as a conversation piece as well as refresh it for CEM.

I’d very much welcome feedback of all kinds, but perhaps in the story responding style of
1. What I took from your paper was
2. The things I liked about it were
3. The things I like to have known more, less about, or that were missing
4. The strongest image/detail for me was

That kind of thing.

• Mind_the_Gap__a_personal_view_of_knowledge_work_in_the_UK_construction_industry_by_Victoria_Ward__October_2007 4.36 MB