Thinking in slow motion about project management

Project management research takes place in an environment where many concepts and ideas are unquestioned and apparently need not be proven to be true as it is generally accepted by researchers and their subjects that they are. By way of its construction and development, this chapter provides an example of a metaphysical and epistemological framework for project management researchers to examine, critique, and re-think their own (and commonly held) concepts and ideas about the nature, relationship, and limits of what can be known about projects and project management. This particular framework is constructed from the philosophical ideas of Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Through the application of the framework, this chapter reveals the limits of mainstream project management thinking and submits that in order for project management research to move forward in truly novel and transformational ways, researchers should openly subject their concepts and constructs to such metaphysical and epistemological scrutiny.