Knowledge co-production in construction management research

For decades scholars have been questioning the linear model of innovation. One of the most influential critiques places research at a historical turning point, with a choice to be made between two forms. The first, 'Mode 1', is the form sometimes caricatured as belonging in ivory towers. The other, 'Mode 2', is more recent, rooted in real-world contexts and conducted by trans-disciplinary teams of heterogeneous actors whose composition changes continually according to the developing demands of the practical problem they are dedicated to solving. In the UK and Europe, researchers in management and organization studies and other fields have turned to Mode 2 in their quest for relevance. A move to Mode-2 research, they argue, is the best way to reunite research, cut adrift in some fields by an incestuous academic fixation with scientific theorizing, with the practice of real-world practitioners. Recent signs suggest that a similar move to what is commonly referred to now as co-production of knowledge is being proposed for construction management (CM). To obtain a first assessment of the merits of such a move, the case-study research reported here considers the trajectory of a chain of linked construction research projects of which several were funded by a research centre that strongly encouraged collaboration with industry. The findings suggest caution in the uncritical imitation of co-production and Mode-2 models for CM research.