title: The treachery of strategic decisions. An Actor-Network Theory perspective on the strategic decisions that produce new trains in the UK.
Creators: name: King, Michael
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2021

description: The production of new passenger trains can be characterised as a strategic decision, followed by a manufacturing stage. Typically, competing proposals are developed and refined, often over several years, until one emerges as the winner. The winning proposition will be manufactured and delivered into service some years later to carry passengers for 30 years or more. However, there is a problem: evidence shows UK passenger trains getting heavier over time. Heavy trains increase fuel consumption and emissions, increase track damage and maintenance costs, and these impacts could last for the train’s life and beyond. To address global challenges, like climate change, strategic decisions that produce outcomes like this need to be understood and improved. To understand this phenomenon, I apply Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to Strategic Decision-Making. Using ANT, sometimes described as the sociology of translation, I theorise that different propositions of trains are articulated until one, typically, is selected as the winner to be translated and become a realised train. In this translation process I focus upon the development and articulation of propositions up to the point where a winner is selected. I propose that this occurs within a valuable ‘place’ that I describe as a ‘decision-laboratory’ – a site of active development where various actors can interact, experiment, model, measure, and speculate about the desired new trains. My research finds that UK passenger trains have indeed got heavier over time, although this is not inevitable. Applying ANT to an historical analysis of the railways I show that the collection of resources that have acted as a train and the railways are more fluid than their iron and steel appearance might imply. A diverse material-semiotic configuration of entities can act as a train. Different configurations will have different attributes, including some that are heavier than others. Two recent strategic decisions – Thameslink and Crossrail – are investigated using ANT to understand how each decision-laboratory mobilised human and non-human actors to articulate propositions of the desired new trains. The realised trains, translated from the earlier winning propositions, are now in service and have been widely recognised for their lightweight designs. To understand problematic outcomes, such as heavy trains, I propose three challenges common to all strategic decisions. The first (treachery of models) refers to the unbridgeable gap between experiments and reality – between propositions of trains and their translated realised forms. The second (performativity of trains) notes the socio-technical nature of trains, which means that, for example, people can compensate for inadequacies in the trains produced. The third (society in the making) reflects the difficulty of producing a train with a 30-year life while society can change around it. I propose that improving strategic decision-making, and the outcomes that later emerge, can be achieved by improving the effectiveness of decision-laboratories. First, the decision-laboratory needs clear and prioritised objectives. Second, the decision-laboratory should be recognised as an active site of production, rather than a neutral, passive, and sterile place. Finally, the decision-laboratory should foster the exploratory side of its character and recognise the value of unplanned innovation.