TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS AND PROJECT PHASES

Construction projects are characterised by rather distinct production phases, which serve as spatial demarcations for decisions and actions of separated organisations and actors. The coherence between the phases is then regulated by mainly contractual relations, governing the flow of services, goods and financial transactions. This system feature is often referred to as an over the wall situation in the functional relationship between the different contributors to the production process. As indicated, it is consequently considered necessary hereafter to treat main phases of a construction project as separated empirical fields for technology concepts to materialise - illustrated in the Great Belt case for instance by three periodic cuts: the public decision phase: running until parliamentary authorisation. the design, tender and contract phase: progressing from the establishment of a client institution Great Belt A/S until the project has been conceptualised and tendered the production phase: during which the separate project parts are physically executed This decomposition might be defined and structured otherwise. In this context, however, it appears reliable as it is roughly backed up by the legal and functional borderlines of the contracting system. If furthermore this three-piece project structure is characterised by decision scope and actor type it can then be related to the technology conception scheme. Considering the field of validity of the different theories a parallel proposal for the analytical approach could tentatively comprise of new technology sociology, in particular the SCOT theory (: social construction of technology) regarding the shaping of technological artifacts as resulting from power excerted by social groups’ alliances, for instance about major public technology decisions. industrial economics theory, with the firm’s perspective on technology as parameter of competitiveness for achieving strategic goals (contracts). innovation economics theory, focusing for instance on development of technological capability through learning in firms and production networks. industrial sociology, introducing for instance a concept of the social constitution of an organisation, which accentuates the coherences in the social system and the integration of formal and informal elements in technology decisions. This merging of theoretical elements with empirical structures will hereafter be taken a step further in the analytical handling of the two first project levels, whereas the third level is only shortly indicated. As the prime aim is demonstrating a methodological approach it has been necessary to limit the detailing to a minimum and to simplify conceptual frameworks considerably.