Construction Management and Economics, 1983, 1, 1-2 The first edition of a new refereed Journal must always give cause for celebration; when it deals with a young academic discipline which has previously lacked an established home for reports of research and other serious papers, we should be doubly pleased. It will not be my regular practice to include an editorial in the Journal but since this is the first issue it seems appropriate to describe something of the background and aims of Construction Management and Economics. The idea of starting the Journal grew out of a worldwide recognition of fundamental changes at work in construction. The construction industries are still largely organized on the basis of a pattern of professional and craft work which emerged many years ago. Pressures arising from changes in technology, both construction technology and increasingly from information technology, will inevitably lead to new organizational forms in construction. Additionally the largest and most complex of today's construction projects cannot be handled by the relatively weak co-ordination provided by professionalization. They require well designed management structures and systems. Construction management brings together elements of all the established professional and craft roles and adds to them management theory and the lessons of practice from a range of similar industries. It is useful to consider management together with economics since these two subjects draw on many common ideas and techniques. In this sense management is different from design and construction. It is also different from the client's role. It is...