Making Projects Critical

DAMIAN HODGSON is a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Analysis and HRM at Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK.SVETLANA CICMIL is a Senior Lecturer in Project Management at Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, UK, where she also acts as Research Unit Director within the School of Operations and Information Management.

'Put simply, this is one of the most refreshing and thought-provoking texts I have read on the practice of project management. Hodgson, Cicmil and their authors have made a seminal contribution to project and organizational studies. Making Projects Critical should be essential reading for project management researchers and practitioners alike.' - Andrew Dainty, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 'This is not a "how to do it" book. Yet it contains numerous insights that enable us to understand why prescriptive, "how to" approaches so often fail to fulfil their promise and often end up confusing rather than delivering. Even though managing projects - with respect to product development, joint ventures or organizational change - is becoming increasingly central to the organization of work, project (and programme) management has tended to be a backwater of research. This consistently strong collection makes a major contribution to correcting this neglect as it provides a challenging and sometimes disorienting set of reflections on the nature, diversity and practice of project management. Much can be learnt from the chapters by sceptical practitioners as well as by management academics who for too long have underestimated the importance of project management.' - Hugh Willmott, Director of PhD Programme, Convenor of Human Resources and Organization Group, The Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge, UK 'Hodgson and Cicmil have produced one of the most intelligent and stimulating books addressing the understanding of projects and their role(s) within the organization(s). Noticing the limit of the traditional 'instrumental' and 'rationalist' approach of project management, they propose a new direct lighting from social theory and constructivist perspective. This book will be an invaluable asset for those acting through and studying these human undertakings transforming ideas into reality and called projects.' - Professor Christophe N. Bredillet, Director of ESC Lille's Postgraduate Studies and Programmes, University of Lille, France 'Making Projects Critical offers a substantial and original contribution to project and organizational studies. It is an eagerly awaited text that applies a critical organizational approach to the area of project management, a field that has become hampered by too many textbook and checklist approaches. The contributing authors provide a number of new insights valuable to scholars in general management as well as project management, with a text that is interesting, sometimes provocative, and always refreshing.' - Dr Anders Soderholm, Umea School of Business and Economics at Umea University, Sweden

• Making Projects Critical: An Introduction; S.Cicmil & D.HodgsonAre Projects Real?; S.Cicmil & D.HodgsonFrom Project Ontologies to Communities of Virtue; C.Linehan & D.KavanaghProject Management, Organisational Change and Learning; M.BresnenProblematizing Project Management; J.L.ThomasProjects and Prisons; M.Lindgren & J.PackendorffThe Contested Object: On Projects as Emergent Space; M.O.NockerAn Actor Network Theory Perspective on IT Projects; A.Linde & H.LinderothReorganisation Projects and Five Uncertainties; E.Molloy & R.WhittingtonA Tale of an Evolving Project; C.SmithUnderstanding Power in Project Settings; N.MarshallThe Management of Projects in the Construction Industry; S.D.GreenManaging Projects in Network Contexts; J.SydowMaking the Future Perfect: Constructing the Olympic Dream; S.R.Clegg, T.S.Pitsis, M.Marosszeky & T.Rura-PolleyConflicting Rhetorical Positions on Trust and Commitment; J.Sillince, C.Harvey & G.HarindranathSensemaking as a Process within Complex Projects; C.Ivory, N.Alderman, I.McLoughlin & R.VaughanMaking the Management of Projects Critical; P.W.G.Morris.