A Study of Knowledge Flow and Recurring Costly Infrastructure Failures

探索性研究早期概念补助金（Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research，EAGER）这是一个案例研究的结构工程失败，由于错误的设计决策。PI将参与档案研究和采访该领域（以及包括建筑在内的相关领域）的专家，以揭示结构工程实践中有关设计决策知识使用的文化和传统。具体来说，她将重点关注在设计决策中无意中忽视相关可用知识的情况，这些知识在某些情况下在结构投入使用后不久无意中导致故障。PI计划进行9项案例研究。这笔赠款将支持九项计划研究中的第一项研究，该研究涉及镀锌高强度钢的使用。PI已经做了初步的历史分析和访谈，以证实更深入地追查此案。该项目的结果将为PI的更大努力提供基础，有助于向科学，技术和社会（STS）社区介绍被忽视的工程专业，并揭示数十年来反复出现的故障，许多没有得到充分宣传，在某些方面对社会产生更广泛，更深刻的负面影响，而不是一次性（单一）灾难性事件。该项目既具有创新性，又具有潜在的变革性。它将开发一个混合的概念框架，结合行动者网络理论（STS方法的社会技术系统）与知识管理系统的方法，处理知识促进者（创造者，承运人，输送机和用户），阻碍者和反馈循环内和组织之间。主要研究者将认为，上述两个框架都不足以捕捉其案例研究的相关要素，最好是结合两个框架最相关特征的框架。此外，PI将为STS期刊准备/提交同行评审论文，为工程研究期刊撰写同行评审论文，为专业结构工程杂志撰写技术文章，并在2017年科学社会研究会议上发表会议论文。这个项目的结果将是感兴趣的公众以及结构工程师，建筑师和技术历史学家。

This award is for Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER). It is a case study of structural engineering failures due to faulty design decisions. The PI will engage in archival research and interviews of experts in the field (and related fields including architecture) to bring to light the culture and traditions of structural engineering practice concerning the use of knowledge in design decision making. Specifically, she will focus on occurrences of inadvertent neglect of pertinent available knowledge in design decision-making that unintentionally caused failures, in some cases soon after the structures were placed into service. The PI has nine case studies planned. This grant will support research for the first of the nine planned studies, which concerns the use of galvanized high-strength steel. The PI has done preliminary historical analysis and interviews to substantiate pursuing this case in much greater depth. The results from this project will provide the foundation for the PI's larger effort, serve to introduce the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) community to an overlooked engineering profession, and bring to light decades of recurring failures, many not well publicized that, that in some respects have broader, deeper adverse effects on society than one-time (singular) catastrophic events. This project is both innovative and potentially transformative. It will develop a hybrid conceptual framework that combines Actor Network Theory (an STS approach to socio-technical systems) with a Knowledge Management Systems approach that deals with knowledge facilitators (creators, carriers, conveyors, and users), impeders, and feedback loops within and among organizations. The PI will argue that neither of the two frameworks mentioned is adequate for capturing pertinent elements of her case study, which is best understood in terms of a framework that combines the most relevant features of both frameworks. In addition, the PI will prepare/present a peer-reviewed paper for an STS journal, a peer-reviewed paper for an engineering studies journal, a technical article for a professional structural engineering magazine, and a conference paper at the 2017 meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science. The results of this project will be of interest to members of the public as well as structural engineers, architects, and historians of technology.