Development Arena in Project Management

Abstract

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, actor-network theory (ANT) was developed by the philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour, as an independent approach to the study of science, technology, and society. Since then, several different frameworks have been developed, based on Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, among these the development arena by Jørgensen and Sørensen 1999, which will be the focus area of this article.

The development arena is an analytical framework that can be used as a tool to understand and analyze processes in which companies and other actors try to influence and control technologies, products, and markets . Under the auspices of project management, the framework is firstly a unique tool to map the complex network, that the project team enters when working on a new project.

By analyzing the development arena and its four elements; concerns, elements, locations, and translations, the project team must strive to identify where change can be enabled and how a reconstruction across relationships in the network can be made possible in the arena in order to create the desired change for the project. This article will provide an insight into what defines a development arena, what elements the arena consists of, and finally how this framework can be used as a tool within management and more specifically its relation to project, program, and portfolio management.