Content area
Abstract
This thesis examines the impact of the contaction of demand since the early 1970s and other developments in the industry's social and economic environment on the ways in which construction projects are organised and implemented. An initial chapter surveys some of the key problems and developments in the industry. It is followed by a critical survey of theories which suggest that the industry is backward in relation to others. An alternative approach is suggested which combines certain general characteristics of construction with the specific historic and institutional characteristics of the industry in Britain. It is argued that the current organisation of construction in Britain is in a number of important respects internationally unique. An investigation of the reasons for the development of this specific British institutional structure is undertaken and its implications for the organisation and efficiency of building work considered. One element of capital accumulation in construction is the emphasis put by firms on the flexibility of their capital. Such flexibility has been important in development of the industry's social relations over the past 15 years. A substantial restructuring has taken place both in the structure of firms and their relationships to clients, workforces, subcontractors, and design professionals. During the ten years prior to 1982, when new construction workloads collapsed, few major firms went to the wall because of the flexibility inherent in the ways they organised production. All the large firms by the mid-1980s had substantially reorganised their activities, however, as the detailed empirical investigation presented here shows. Unlike the major firms, building workers and design professionals suffered heavily from the years of crisis. Architects are increasingly being toppled from their previously substantial roles in the management of construction. Building workers have been forced to become an even more flexible productive resource, particularly through the increasing adoption by firms of pyramid forms of subcontracting. The outcome of the organisational changes in the industry seems to be a remarkable improvement in productivity, completion times and construction costs. They have been won, however, in ways which could exacerbate problems of high building cost and poor quality work because of factors inherent in the new social organisation of production. Major bottlenecks can be seen in a number of aspects of construction; a well-documented one being training. The restructuring of the British construction industry has also imposed severe limitations on the overall level of construction activity. Construction, as a result, is unlikely to be a panacea for reducing unemployment.