Megaprojects

Beyond the managerial and activist traps

Bibliographic Data

ID7153136
AuthorsAnder Audikana (0000-0002-2588-1751, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, corresponding author), Paolo Beria (0000-0001-5171-6576, Politecnico di Milano), Javier Arellano-Yanguas (0000-0002-3574-3766, Universidad de Deusto)
Year2025
Volume43
Issue4
Pages611-636
Publication date2025-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning C Politics and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2399-6544 • E-ISSN: 2399-6552
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/23996544241274065
OpenAlexW4401645277
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited132

The megaprojects paradox is still there: while large investments, infrastructures, facilities, and variegated ventures are more in demand than ever, scientific criticism and public opposition are increasingly strong, and difficulties to formulate alternative policies and development patterns are notorious. The impossibility of getting out of the paradox is due to the managerial and activist traps in which the scholarship on megaprojects is caught. This paper advocates for a more direct and conscious cross-fertilization between managerial and activist approaches on megaprojects in order to overcome their respective traps. It identifies 10 axes for further future collaboration which will serve as a basis for a shared research agenda. In this research agenda, the study of megaprojects appears as an autonomous research field in which the relationship between megaprojects and development patterns is systematically assessed and the analysis of policy alternatives to megaprojects becomes pivotal

Criticism · Economic growth · Economics · Impossibility · Political science · Public relations · Scholarship · Sociology · Community Development and Social Impact · Law · Public-Private Partnership Projects · Urban and Rural Development Challenges

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Open DOIOpen Access