Research Projects

I have conducted research projects that broadly fall into five main areas. These also give a good idea of the scope of my ongoing work.

Firstly, at the core of my interests, I have conducted research on the use of criminal laws, specifically corporate manslaughter offences, to govern the legal response to work-related fatality cases, or situations where people have been killed as a result of their work or other organisational activity. What are the practical, legal, and legitimacy implications of this? This work began with my PhD thesis (2000-2004), and remains ongoing.

Secondly, following on from this, I have explored the ways in which expressive forms of legal response to regulatory wrongdoing, such as corporate manslaughter offences, impact upon public attitudes and perceptions in relation to health and safety regulation. This work centred on an ESRC-funded research project (2008-10).

Thirdly, I have undertaken a major project of work looking at the contemporary history and legitimacy of health and safety regulation as a field of legal and policy activity - the interrelationships between institutions, politics, practice, and social attitudes. This work stemmed from a research grant awarded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (2013-16).

Fourthly, and relatedly, I have looked at the concept of 'regulatory myths', silly and derisive media and public stories about health and safety regulation. These stories ('children must wear goggles for conkers' etc.) constitute significant political challenges to the workings of the regulatory system, and reflect deep-seated anxieties and concerns within late-modern society. This work began with a 2009 research paper, and is ongoing.

Finally, I have looked at a range of issues relating to the theoretical and normative focus of regulatory studies, and regulation itself, both at the frontline actors who are subject to its gaze, and at the parameters and presumptions of the discipline of regulation itself. This has taken me into a range of new areas and across new disciplines and collaborations.