ABSTRACT
Building permitting is a complex, interdisciplinary process that serves as a regulatory interface between public objectives and private construction activities. Far from being a simple administrative task, permitting involves legal, technical, spatial, and organizational coordination shaped by local contexts, professional judgement, and informal practices. This chapter examines building permit processes as socio-technical systems, drawing on over two decades of international research. It explores how permitting is structured, modelled, and interpreted across jurisdictions, using frameworks such as BPMN, IDEF0, Petri Nets, and Actor-Network Theory to reflect diverse analytical perspectives. The chapter also reviews empirical studies and process modelling efforts, highlighting global patterns, regional specificities, and the challenges of digital transformation. Eight key lessons are distilled to guide future research and practice, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary understanding, context-sensitive reform, and critical reflection on modelling approaches. By reconceptualizing permitting beyond linear workflows, the chapter contributes to a more realistic and actionable understanding of how regulatory processes operate in practice.
