Visualising cooperation and conflict in large scale projects through the mathematisation and depiction of project conversations

• Main Author: Peters, Guy Matthew
• Other Authors: Lilley, Simon ; Conway, Steve
• Published: University of Leicester 2014
• Subjects: 658
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.677399

Effective communication between different specialisms within complex or large scale projects is critical to keep such expensive and time consuming projects on time and on budget. Considerable literature exists in the field of project management concerned with the importance of effective communication in complex projects however relatively little research into establishing new ways of communicating across discourse community boundaries exisis. Social scientists such as Latour and Callon have underpinned the use of Actor Network Theory as a means to identify actors and networks and have outlined how aspects of quantification could be applied to what are often considered as purely qualitative elements of a project. Other social scientists such as Henry, MacEachren and Corrigan have identified the potential ability of ‘the visual’ to allow information to be transmitted across discourse boundaries and how this use of ‘the visual’ may permit greater levels of investigation into social phenomena through the development of an ‘emergent semantic’. Through an investigation of meetings undertaken as part of a complex project within the UK Space Science sector, this thesis investigates the use of ‘the visual’ as a means to more effectively communicate across discourse community boundaries and pays greater heed to the ‘softer’ emotions which are involved during the communication process but which are often treated differently or not considered as important by members from a different community.