This paper evaluates organisational changes in English local authority building-control departments (BCD), in a context in which the adoption and development of management procedure, technique, and process, more commonly associated with corporate private-sector enterprises, are occurring. Referring to data based on twenty-nine interviews with building surveyors, we show that change in building control is complex and contradictory, and best thought of as the emergence of new capacities, competencies, and interactions (of regulation) both within BCD, and between BCD and new actors and agents. This includes the enlargement of the regulatory networks of BCD, through the use of external expert advisors, and by the formation of, sometimes unstable, partnerships in which BCD may work with each other and with clients of building-control services. Such partnerships and networks are part of a complexity of regulation, in which outcomes are not the products of any one professional, or actor, but part of a diversity of overlapping relations and interventions. Such relations, we argue, are part of a process that may undermine, even dismantle, the public provision of building-control services.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.