TY  - CONF
TI  - Which Kind of Science Is Construction Management?
AU  - Koskela, Lauri
AD  - Professor, Salford Centre for Research and Innovation (SCRI) in the built and human environment, University of Salford, Salford, UK,
ED  - Tzortzopoulos, Patricia
ED  - Kagioglou, Mike
PY  - 2008
DA  - 2008/07/16
T2  - 16th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
C3  - 16th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
CY  - Manchester, UK
SP  - 51
EP  - 60
AB  - It is argued that the mainstream views on the nature of construction management are insufficient, and as one consequence of this, the relevance of construction management has been questioned. As a solution to this situation, construction management is suggested to be repositioned as a design science, rather than as an explanatory science. A historical consideration reveals that design science equals to one of the sciences proposed by Aristotle, however, the suggestion of Aristotle has been forgotten. Thus, there has been a long-standing neglect of the design science, which explains the present fragmentation of this field. It is argued that this redefinition of construction management will solve several problems plaguing this discipline, including the problem of relevance.
KW  - construction management
KW  - natural science
KW  - social science
KW  - science of production
KW  - design science
KW  - constructive research
L1  - https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/584/pdf
UR  - https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/584
DB  - IGLC.net
LA  - English
N1  - Export date: 04 October 2026
ER  -