Melissa Teo

Community‐based protest against construction projects: a case study of movement continuity

Community‐based activism against proposed construction projects is growing. Many protests are poorly managed and escalate into long‐term and sometimes acrimonious disputes which damage communities, firms and the construction industry as a whole. Using a thematic storytelling approach which draws on ethnographic method, within a single case study framework, new insights into the social forces that shape and sustain community‐based protest against construction projects are provided. A conceptual model of protest movement continuity is presented which highlights the factors that sustain protest continuity over time. The model illustrates how social contagion leads to common community perceptions of development risk and opportunity, to a positive internalization of collective values and identity, to a strategic utilization of social capital and an awareness of the need to manage the emotional dynamics of protest through mechanisms such as symbolic artefacts.

Changing the Environmental Culture of the Construction Industry

Being one of the biggest consumers of nature, it is not surprising that the construction industry has become the target of environmentalists and, more recently, government attempts to manage the environment more effectively. The construction industry needs to improve its environmental record and changing people’s wasteful behaviour can make a significant contribution. This paper describes a research project which used Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour to investigate the attitudinal forces which shape wasteful behaviour on site. It concludes that site operatives’ see waste as an inevitable by-product of construction activity. Although attitudes towards waste management are not negative, they are pragmatic and impeded by perceptions of a lack of managerial commitment. Waste management is perceived as a low project priority and there is an absence of appropriate resources and incentives to support it. Suggestions are made to bring about a more positive environmental culture on construction sites.

Community-based protest against construction projects: The social determinants of protest movement continuity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social forces that shape perceptions of risk and sustain community‐based protest against controversial construction projects.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a thematic story‐telling approach which draws on ethnographic method and theories relating to social contagion, group dynamics and collective action.Findings – The paper shows how collective action against projects is maintained by a high degree of interconnectivity and relational multiplexity between participating individuals and groups. Other determinants of movement continuity include the protective role of hidden social networks, overlapping protest group memberships, the plurality of protest issues faced and the quality and nature of social ties, experiences and emotions that link activists in collective action over the protest movements lifetime.Research limitations/implications – This research extends existing research in protest mobalisation in the social and political do...

Measuring Impacts and Risks to the Public of a Privately Operated Toll Road Project by Considering Perspectives in Cost-Benefit Analysis

Decision making about transport infrastructure investment is based on the net impacts and risks to the community. The private sector is often involved in toll road projects, including various schemes to design, build, operate and/or finance the project either in a partnership with a host government, independently, or in some combination. Cost-Benefit Analysis of a privately operated toll road require careful allocations of project impacts, in order to properly reflect the net impacts and risks to the community from the host government’s perspective. This study investigates whether alternative assumptions are valid from differing perspectives, when toll roads are delivered and operated privately rather than by a host government. Treatments of tolls and other toll road project related payments are considered from different perspectives. Cost-Benefit Analysis is conducted for a synthesised toll tunnel project case by considering alternating treatments of some impacts. This leads to the exploration of analyses outcomes when the treatment of tolls differ when two perspectives of “toll as a transfer payment” and “toll as an end user cost” are considered. Various scenarios are explored including public versus private operations. The Monte Carlo simulation approach is used to account the risks of variables in the analysis. The synthesised case study revealed that, for privately operated toll roads, treating toll charges as a transfer payment, and alternatively as an end user cost, can both be valid approaches but from two perspectives. Moreover, the analysis outcomes under different perspectives are particularly helpful to make decisions on the basis of the impacts and risks solely from the perspective of the host government. The proposed methodology can examine various scenarios other than the ones examined in this study and is extremely useful in the project evaluation of privately operated toll road projects.