The Professorial Inaugural Lecture Series: Professor Edward Finch January 25, 2011

The first Professorial Inaugural Lecture of the second semester will be given by Professor Edward Finch, Professor in Facilities Management, School of the Built Environment and is entitled The Commodification of Facilities Management.

About the Lecture

"The Marxist view of commodification is a process whereby economic value is assigned to something not previously considered in economic terms; for example, an idea, an identity or a gender. Such a process is evident in the domain of facilities management (FM) to which costs were readily seen but economic value rarely acknowledged. Facilities management is an area concerned with the integration of settings (places) with the people and organisations that inhabit these settings. Historically, this integration has been achieved by in-house professionals within an organisation by means of directly employed labour. The advent of outsourcing has been associated with the disaggregation of facilities services, market testing and contracting out. This approach has afforded unprecedented growth in a previously 'hidden' market. "In early 2010, the UK FM market is currently valued at just under £90 billion in annualised terms, with sources indicating that most sectors are now experiencing more positive demand patterns, though pricing pressures remain keen in a number of key end use markets" (MTW Research, 2010).

"But have we gone too far with commodification? Has commodification driven out the early aspirations of facilities management as a corporate enabler? Do we need to reconsider the role of facilities management as we move into the experience economy? This presentation presents challenging views on possible future scenarios which affect us all, as we are shaped and moulded by the buildings we occupy."

About Professor Finch

Edward is Professor in Facilities Management. He has a background of over twenty years of academic involvement in the discipline of Facilities Management. In 2008 he was appointed as Co-ordinator for CIB W070, an International Working Party in Facilities Management that forms part of the "Conseil International du Bâtiment" (CIB). CIB is a global network for international exchange and cooperation in research and innovation in building and construction, in support of an improved building process and of improved performance of the built environment.

Edward is also Editor-in-Chief of 'Facilities' - a leading peer reviewed academic journal in the area of Facilities Management that was established over twenty five years ago www.emeraldinsight.com/f.htm.

He is particularly keen to see the leverage of powerful research tools - applied to the facilities management sector. A wealth of diverse research in the university domains, remain unexploited - including FM business tools and techniques that provide a behavioural and economic understanding of building use. Our understanding of the relationship between buildings, people and organisational growth are key concerns in his research. Past funded projects stretching over two decades include EPSRC, Teaching Company Scheme, JISC, FORMAS (Swedish funding body) sponsored work.

Official Website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1359