Ethics and the Built Environment (by Jon de Souza)
This is the first part of a two-parter on ethics in the built environment sector. This first part will look at where I believe the debate on ethics in the sector is currently while the second will start to reflect on particular ethical issues and determine how some of the great western philosophers would have considered them.
As those of you that have met me may know, my background is in philosophy, and specifically in ethics. I somehow ‘landed’ in construction around ten years ago. I have always described it as such deliberately as if I were somehow a visitor from another planet. And quite a distant one at that.
Over the last few years, however, ethical considerations have become more prominent in construction although the use of ethics as a term is still rare. Instead, moral judgements are ensconced in the language of sustainability, corporate social responsibility, fair payments, procurement, collaborative working and elsewhere. I would like to argue that, at present, the built environment sector is only addressing a limited part of the ethical agenda and that a significant widening of that agenda is required if construction can be considered as an industry that is behaving ‘morally’.
What struck me immediately when looking at our industry is that strong parallels exist between how ethical considerations of war and how an ethical framework for construction could be developed. This is not, by the way, because I’m suggesting that construction is inherently a battleground! We’ll have none of that reverting to type round here thank you. Just War Theory is traditionally divided into two main constituent parts. The first, Jus Ad Bellum, is concerned with the decision to go to war; the second, Jus In Bello, considers conduct once hostilities have started. The two areas are not interdependent, i.e. a just war can be fought unethically.
I would argue that the same holds true for construction and would like to posit that there should be a ‘Just Wall Theory’. (No groans at the back please. Trust me, it gets worse). At present, the discussions about ethical behaviours in construction largely consider what happens after a decision has been taken to construct - the Jus In Buildo stage if you will. (Told you). What is missing is consideration of that former stage – the question asked is “can we build it”, but not “should we”. This seems to chime with our view of the world – that there are some things that simply shouldn’t be built. I mean, can any of us really morally defend snow domes in Dubai?
If one agrees that in some cases the act of construction is in itself unethical it leads to the question of how we make that decision. I will move onto that discussion in Part 2 which will come at a later date.
In the meantime, for those of you within the sector that are interested in this topic, I would recommend you seek out Ethics for the Built Environment by Peter Fewings. I was delighted to be able to share a stage with Peter at last year’s Construction Ethics Symposium in Bristol, which I believe to be the first such event in the country. Hopefully more such events will take place in the future to take this debate forward.
[...] Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment » Blog Archive » Ethics and the Built E… – If consultants only get involved at the Jus in Bello stage, is it ethical to build immoral buildings? Waiting avidly for part 2: "At present, the discussions about ethical behaviours in construction largely consider what happens after a decision has been taken to construct – the Jus In Buildo stage if you will. (Told you). What is missing is consideration of that former stage – the question asked is “can we build it”, but not “should we”. This seems to chime with our view of the world – that there are some things that simply shouldn’t be built. I mean, can any of us really morally defend snow domes in Dubai?" [...]
Jon
Interesting article.
I think in some areas ethical considerations are present for some at least in our industry at two levels - personal and organisational.
Although in hard times I wonder how much of this is so rigourously adhered to generally. It must be easier to be ethical when there is no shortage of work and times are good.
Personally I had opportunities to go to Dubai, but one reason for not going was due to ethical issues of what was being built and how it gets built over there. It is likely these projects will still happen whether I am there or not, but personally I’ve made a choice not to, which included the ethics of actually being there and doing it
At an organisational level many years ago the company I work for chopped down a forest to build a fag factory. I doubt we’d do it again though, and we now have ethical considerations in the bid process (ie should we be involved in this project at all), whether the organisation acts as a developer or builder or both.
This considers issues such as reputational damage and whether a project (client, type of building etc) is aligned with our core principles, one of which is along the lines of: would you be happy seeing what you’ve done in the newspapers or on TV?
I’m not necessarily aware of where we have turned a job down on purely ethical grounds, partly because you don’t usually get to hear of projects that we decide not to work on, and probably because the decisions are more complex than solely one issue.
Sometimes ethical issues are not clear cut though. Many years ago, I remember the former owners of our business recounting when they carried out an inspection of a warehouse they had built and were renting in the far east. They found a whole load of small children stitching footballs. The question then arose - shouldn’t these children be in school and should we be building and renting units for these things to go on? They felt very uncomfortable. It transpired the children were all from poor families and none could afford to go to school, it being common practice to go out to work at an early age in that community. The choices generally being stitching footballs or being prostitutes. So which would we prefer?? At least in the football factory there was a chance their situation could be improved by providing some education.
So in summary i’d say ethics are considered (by some at least) as an up front issue. It’s just probably you don’t get to hear about it, and the projects that do go ahead which are ethically questionable are arranged, designed and built by those with less scruples, or less consideration for the ethical issues.