ARCOM Podcast - where built environment research comes to life

What can we learn about construction skills by actually trying to acquire them ourselves?

In this episode of the ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast, host Dr. Selçuk Çidik (University College London) is joined by Dr. Richard Brett (Anglia Ruskin University) to explore craftsmanship, construction skills and the value of ethnography as a research method.

Drawing on his own experience of enrolling in a basic leadwork training course, Richard reflects on what it means to study construction work from the inside. His research examines skill not simply by observing or interviewing craftspeople, but by entering the setting, participating in the work and experiencing first-hand the frustrations, failures and gradual breakthroughs involved in learning a traditional craft.

The conversation begins by asking what ethnography can contribute to construction management research. The discussion then turns to tacit knowledge. Skilled physical work can be difficult to explain in an interview because practitioners often know more than they can easily put into words. By participating in the work, researchers can encounter aspects of skill that might otherwise remain invisible. Leadwork provides a particularly revealing case. 

While construction research often focuses on digitalisation, automation and efficiency, much construction work (like lead work) is still ultimately carried out by people using their hands, judgement and accumulated experience. Richard and Selçuk also discuss what happens when opportunities to develop those abilities are removed. If construction processes continue to depend on human labour, should the industry be doing more to enable workers to become genuinely skilled at what they do? Finally, Richard reflects on the tension between young people struggling to find good work while the construction industry simultaneously reports persistent shortages of skilled workers.

Chapters

02:02 – Why Studying Leadwork?
03:09 – What Ethnography Contributes to Construction Research
16:20 – Learning by Doing: Failure, Practice and Thick Description
20:24 – Implications for Construction Management Research and Practice
24:34 – The Future of the Skilled Construction Workforce

Guest

Dr. Richard Brett
Anglia Ruskin University

Host

Dr. Selçuk Çidik
University College London

Resources
Brett, R and Netter, M (2026) It is in the Blood: Learning to Work Lead. In Chow, V, and Neilson, C (Eds). Working Paper presented at 43rd Annual Conference of Construction Management Researchers, Loughborough, UK.

About

The ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast brings construction management research to life through conversations with researchers from the ARCOM community. Each episode explores theories, research methods and perspectives shaping the field of construction management, connecting academic research with the wider challenges facing the built environment. Whether you are a researcher, student or construction professional, join us as we explore recent and thought-provoking research from the construction management community.

In this episode of the ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast, hosts Dr. Léon olde Scholtenhuis (University of Twente) and Dr. Dimosthenis Kifokeris (Chalmers University of Technology) are joined by Dr. Kwadwo Oti-Sarpong, Lecturer in Project Management at UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction.

Chapters

02:51 – What Is Socio-Technical Thinking?
09:09 – Three Mobiliations of ST thinking in CM Research
16:55 – Theoretical Rigour
18:22 – Is There Hope?
19:40 – Authors, Supervisors and Peer Review
22:00 – The “Frankenstein” Effect
23:49 – Drop the Socio-Technical Label?

Guest

Dr. Kwadwo Oti-Sarpong
Lecturer in Project Management
The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL

Kwadwo’s research interests include the socio-technical dimensions of technological and digital innovation in the built environment.

Hosts

Dr. Léon olde Scholtenhuis
University of Twente

Dr. Dimosthenis Kifokeris
Chalmers University of Technology

Research discussed
Construction management researchers frequently study the interaction between people, organisations and technologies. As a result, the term socio-technical has become increasingly common in the literature. But what does socio-technical thinking actually mean? Together, they explore the socio-technical turn in construction management research and reflect on a review of 141 papers examining how socio-technical thinking is actually mobilised within the field. Different traditions conceptualise the relationship between the social and the technical in different ways: from more structured approaches that distinguish between the two to more fluid perspectives. The discussion identifies three broad ways in which socio-technical thinking appears in construction management research: bolt-on, reductionist or superficial, and in-depth mobilisations. Ultimately, Kwadwo responds to an inward looking question: does the peer-review process itself encourage studies to become a “Frankenstein” combination of concepts, sprinkled over rather than applied rigorously in a study?

The ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast brings construction management research to life through conversations with researchers from the ARCOM community. Each episode explores theories, research methods and perspectives shaping the field of construction management, connecting academic research with the wider challenges facing the built environment.

Whether you are a researcher, student or construction professional, join us as we explore recent and thought-provoking research from the construction management community.

Resources
Oti-Sarpong, K, Olde Scholtenhuis, LL, and Hartmann A (2026) Mobilisation of Socio-Technical in Construction Management Research: Ubiquitous Yet (Seldom) Critically Deployed? In: Chow, V and Neilson, C. (Eds) Proceedings of the 412t Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2026, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management

How can organisations work together to make construction more sustainable? Can organisational collectives genuinely drive industry-wide change—or might they become permanent organisations whose membership fees and organisational survival take priority over meaningful transformation?

In the first episode of the ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast, hosts Dr. Léon olde Scholtenhuis and Dr. Dimosthenis Kifokeris are joined by Dr. Nicolaj Frederiksen, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark. 

They discuss Nicolaj’s research into organisational collectives for sustainability: groups of organisations that come together to address shared challenges that are too complex for any single organisation to tackle alone. Part of this research was presented at the 41st Annual ARCOM Conference in Dundee in 2025, where it received a Best Paper Prize.

Drawing on examples from the Danish construction industry, the conversation explores how networks, platforms, hubs and clusters can coordinate action, exchange knowledge and create change beyond individual projects and organisations.

But collective action also raises difficult questions:

• How can commercial organisations balance their own interests with a shared sustainability ambition?
• Who gets to participate—and who risks being excluded?
• Do organisational collectives create genuine systemic change, or do they reproduce the structures they aim to transform?

Ultimately, the episode asks whether organisational collectives for sustainability are a source of hope—or a hoax.

Chapters

• (02:27) - What Are Organisational Collectives for Sustainable Change?

Guest

Dr. Nicolaj Frederiksen
Assistant Professor
University of Southern Denmark

Hosts

Dr. Léon olde Scholtenhuis
University of Twente

Dr. Dimosthenis Kifokeris
Chalmers University of Technology

Episode references

Discussed paper

Frederiksen, N., Gottlieb, S. C., de Gier, A., Holmegaard, R., Koch, C., & Buser, M. (2025). Organisational Collectives for Sustainable Change: Hope or Hoax? In C. Thomson & C. J. Neilson (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual ARCOM Conference, 1–3 September 2025, Abertay University, Dundee, UK, pp. 822–831. Association of Researchers in Construction Management.

Read the paper

Government statement referenced by Léon

Joint Statement by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and [complete title or link].

Prior research discussed

Astley, W. G., & Fombrun, C. J. (1983). Collective strategy: Social ecology of organisational environments. Academy of Management Review, 8(4), 576–587.

Read the article

About the ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast

The ARCOM Construction Management Research Podcast brings construction management research to life through conversations with researchers from the ARCOM community. Each episode explores the theories, research methods and perspectives shaping construction management, connecting academic research with the wider challenges facing the built environment. Whether you are a researcher, student or construction professional, join us as we explore recent and thought-provoking research from the construction management community.