This article presents the results of a poll made among the members of the editorial and advisory boards of Valuation Studies. The purpose is to overview the topic that is the remit of the new journal. The poll focused on three questions: Why is the study of valuation topical? What specific issues related to valuation are the most pressing ones to explore? What sites and methods would be interesting for studying valuation? The answers to these questions provided by sixteen board members form the basis of the article. Based on these answers, it identifies a number of themes concerning the study of valuation, elaborating on the rationale for attending to valuation, the conceptual challenges linked to this, and the specific issues and sites that deserve further attention. Co-authors: Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Patrik Aspers, Stefan Beljean, Alexandra Bidet, Alberto Corsín, Emmanuel Didier, Marion Fourcade, Susi Geiger, Klaus Hoeyer, Michèle Lamont, Donald MacKenzie, Bill Maurer, Jan Mouritsen, Ebba Sjögren, Kjell Tryggestad, François Vatin, Steve Woolgar.
This paper is about the role of accounting in making decisions about contested organizational change. We study how two strategic options emerged and were valued differently in a protracted case regarding sourcing by the Danish Defence Force. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory we show how the two strategic options emerged and were pitted against each other in what Callon describes as 'trials of strength'. The contribution of the paper is in three actions: First, it develops the concept of 'trial of strength' for accounting and organizational research by showing that extant literature can be enhanced with the conceptualization of a typology of trials that distinguishes between prototype trials and trials of incompatibility. Second, it shows that accounting inscriptions may play changing roles which we label 'versatile' when forged in the contested circumstances and resultant pressure of a trial of incompatibility. Third, it highlights how accounting inscriptions take part in (re)formulating, evaluating and advancing mutually exclusive reform options in a series of trials of strength involving both a prototype trial and trials of incompatibility. In addition to the frequency, number and intensity of the inscriptions there appears to be an increased prospect of unfaithful behavior by some inscriptions. This work also has implications for governmentality theorization and processual views of outsourcing decision making-as well as its paradoxical outcomes.
Project goals are conceptualized in the construction management literature as either stable and exogenously given or as emerging endogenously during the construction process. Disparate as these perspectives may be, they both overlook the role that material objects used in construction processes can play in transforming knowledge and thereby shaping project goals. Actor-network theory is used to explore the connection between objects and knowledge with the purpose of developing an adaptive and pragmatic approach to goals in construction. Based on a case study of the construction of a skyscraper, emphasis is given to how design ambitions emerge in a process of goal translation, and to how, once these ambitions are materialized, tensions between aesthetic and functional concerns emerge and are resolved. These tensions are resolved through trials of strength as the object—the building—is elaborated and circulates across sites in various forms, e.g. artistic sketches, drawings and models. Given that initial goal accuracy is often seen as a key success factor, these insights have theoretical and practical implications for the management and evaluation of the construction project.Design ambitions, project goals, knowledge, evaluation,
Within construction, roles are generally thought of in terms of a division of labour, tasks and responsibilities, established through contractual and/or cultural relations. Moreover, roles are also presumed to be relatively stable. Drawing upon actor network theory, roles are re‐conceptualized and it is argued that roles are emergent and that they depend upon the tools and devices with which the project managers are equipped. A case study of the construction of a skyscraper, the ‘Turning Torso’, in Malmö, Sweden highlights the hybrid role of project management. In some instances project management may act as a mediator having qualitative effects on the project while in other instances project management may only be an intermediary, merely speeding up the process by conveying the concerns of others. The concept of qualculative project management is introduced to account for this emerging hybrid role. The analysis shows the ways in which the budget and other devices participates in enacting a qualculative role for project management, while simultaneously being involved in negotiating boundaries between professional roles in construction as well as the qualitative and quantitative properties of the building.Roles, emergence, construction process, project management, budgeting,
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