Philosophical Foundations of Construction Management Research

Philosophical Foundations of Construction Management Research: Toward Reflexive and Ethical Inquiry offers a rigorous intervention into the epistemological and axiological underpinnings of construction research. Moving beyond methodological ritualism and the uncritical adoption of positivist paradigms, this book challenges scholars to reposition construction management as a human science—one grounded in moral reasoning, contextual judgment, and epistemic justice. Through a triad of interlocking philosophical pillars—ontology, epistemology, and axiology—Dr. Chia Fah Choy exposes how conventional research practices often erase the lived realities of those most vulnerable in the contract chain: subcontractors, migrant laborers, and even squeezed main contractors. Drawing on over two decades of industry experience, the author introduces two original frameworks: Shèn Dú (??): the Confucian ethical principle of "vigilance in solitude," reconceptualized as a discipline of researcher integrity in moments unobserved by institutional oversight; Quantum PDSA: a non-linear, ethically entangled reimagining of the Plan–Do–Study–Act cycle, replacing mechanical compliance with conscious, full-chain ethical inquiry. The book further advances the Cognitive Turn in construction research—positioning projects not as technical systems but as sites of distributed, embodied, and situated cognition, where judgment, fear, silence, and moral strain shape outcomes more profoundly than any Gantt chart. It critiques the Sophist Trap: the systemic production of research that performs rigor while avoiding uncomfortable truths about power, risk transfer, and contractual asymmetry. Structured as a philosophical manifesto, the work integrates vignettes from real projects with robust theoretical engagement—bridging Flyvbjerg's phronesis, Haraway's situated knowledges, and Berger & Luckmann's social construction of reality. It includes practical tools such as an Axiological Positionality Statement template and a Quantum PDSA Implementation Checklist, enabling researchers to translate ethical commitments into methodological practice. This book is essential reading for doctoral candidates, supervisors, and scholars committed to reflexive methodology, value-driven inquiry, and the decolonization of knowledge in built environment research. It calls not for more data—but for more conscience—in a discipline ready to mature beyond performativity toward truth-telling.