This episode is all about our ‘built environment’. In other words, infrastructure – our roads, bridges, water system, and digital infrastructure. After listening to this one, it’s more than likely that you will never think about this topic in the same way again.
Think about when our roads and bridges were built. Who was in the room (often decades ago) making the decisions? What did they know? How do these decisions impact us today? What does that mean for current infrastructure decisions? A lot. Infrastructure can be viewed as 'institutional relics".
Meet today’s guest, Daniel Armanios. Daniel is the BT Professor of Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford’s Säid Business School. His research and teaching integrates civil engineering with organisational sociology to better understand how organisations can coordinate to build, manage, and maintain infrastructure systems. Daniel is a super interesting guy – a Rhodes Scholar with a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, he is an interdisciplinary expert yet a practical thinker. He has amazing insights and this leads to a fascinating conversation.
We cover things like:
- How infrastructure decisions that are ‘rational’ can sometimes create unequal outcomes;
- Why it’s important for those designing and building infrastructure to think about who they might be excluded – and how to do that;
- Infrastructure as an 'institutional relic';
- Political turmoil;
- Risk and uncertainty in infrastructure;
- Risk-taking as an academic
Show notes:
Daniel’s inaugural lecture at the University of Oxford
Daniel’s research on bridges
Flint Michigan water crisis
Jackson Mississippi water crisis
Pittsburgh Fern Hollow Bridge and its collapse
Kathleen Eisenhardt on simple rules
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