A Prologue for Knowledge Management: the Case of Sustainable Construction Practice

This paper provides a prologue to knowledge management for the UK construction industry as it attempts to deal with issues of the sustainability of its practices. Sustainable construction is seen as a novel and contested concept within the industry, and is perceived as requiring the industry collectively to innovate new practices and deploy new knowledge. The paper explores the foundations for any technological intervention to support these aims, based on knowledge management ideas, and considers the issues of beginning such a task. The paper steps back from the detail of what any particular knowledge management intervention is trying to achieve, or how it might be undertaken, and instead asks broad questions of both knowledge management and of the formative context for any intervention in support of sustainability. Drawing on soft systems methodology, the paper explores various relevant weltanschauungen and asks whether a desirable knowledge management intervention is feasible within this context. Classes of findings are described using evidence from an empirical study.