Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Health and Safety in Contemporary Britain

Society, Legitimacy, and Change since 1960

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Paul Almond

    1. School of Law, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Mike Esbester

    1. School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Charts the development of modern British health and safety, in response to ideas around risk society, managerialism, regulatory capitalism, and demographic and economic changes in the workplace

  • Draws on interviews, detailed archival research, and a review of both academic and policy literature

  • Contextualises recent debates over voluntarism and identity, the limits of political consensus, and the commercialisation of health and safety

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction and Organising Ideas

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 1-19

  3. Recent Public Attitudes Towards Health and Safety

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 21-42

  4. Shaping Health and Safety, 1800–2015

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 43-78

  5. A New Order? Constituting Health and Safety

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 79-136

  6. Health and Safety in a Changing World

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 137-182

  7. Health and Safety in Action

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 183-237

  8. Justice and Values: Whose Interests Are Served?

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 239-290

  9. Conclusions

    • Paul Almond, Mike Esbester
    Pages 291-306

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 307-317
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book analyses the perceived legitimacy of health and safety in post-1960 British public life. Since 2010 health and safety has appeared to be in crisis, being attacked by press, politicians and public alike, but are these claims of crisis accurate? How have understandings of health and safety changed over the past 60 years? By exploring the history, culture, and operation of health and safety in contemporary Britain, this book provides a new assessment of an understudied, but surprisingly far-reaching, part of the British political and social landscape. Combining archival research with focus group, social survey and oral history testimony, the book examines the historical background to health and safety, how health and safety has been enacted in public and in the workplace, the impact of changing economic, occupational and social structures on the operation of health and safety, and the conflicts and interests that have shaped the area.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Law, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Paul Almond

  • School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

    Mike Esbester

About the authors

Paul Almond is Professor of Law at the University of Reading, UK. His research explores the interrelationship of the criminal law, corporate criminology and regulation and governance studies, and is particularly concerned with issues of health and safety regulation and workplace fatality and disaster. He is the author of Corporate Manslaughter and Regulatory Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).


Mike Esbester is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth, UK. His research focuses on the history of risk, safety and accident prevention in modern Britain. He co-edited (with Tom Crook) Governing Risks in Modern Britain: Danger, Safety and Accidents, c.1800-2000 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and is now producing a monograph on British railway worker safety, 1871-1948.






Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Health and Safety in Contemporary Britain

  • Book Subtitle: Society, Legitimacy, and Change since 1960

  • Authors: Paul Almond, Mike Esbester

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03970-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-03969-1Published: 12 January 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-03970-7Published: 30 December 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIX, 317

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Legal History, History of Britain and Ireland, Modern History, Employee Health and Wellbeing

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation