Book reviews in CME: A critical perspective

This paper analysis the book reviews appearing in five volumes of Construction Management and Economics (Vols 20-24). This provided a sample of 52 reviews. It analyses each review in two ways: firstly, by the factual information about the published book. These include the subject area of the books published, who publishes them, the balance between edited and written books, the price range and pence per published page by each publisher. The second part of the analysis relies upon an interpretive framework. Each review is assessed for its qualities of being informative about the content, purpose and audience for the book under review. Additionally the review will be evaluated by reference to its critical facility and whether the review offers an uncritical perspective or offers a more engaged opinion. Finally, the reviews are assayed by whether its reviewer recommends the book to its stated or perceived audience.