Business Book Review: Corruption And The Management Of Public Safety.

The author, Simon Ashley Bennett, wrote Corruption and the Management of Public Safety to introduce the reader to ANT (Actor-Network Theory). ANT can be used to identify and quantify graft with respect to the governance of technological systems and to ascertain to what degree and through what mechanisms graft contributed to a near-miss, incident, or accident.

Simon Bennett is Director of the Civil Safety and Security Unit (CSSU), University of Leicester, and is interested in the organisational, social, economic, and political origins of risk.

The book is aimed at academics, including students, researchers, and faculty within the fields of risk, crisis, and disaster management, as well as corporate governance and safety.

I’m afraid I don’t check any of those boxes, so I’m probably not the best person to critique the book. However, I volunteered to review this book, so I will take the role of a layperson.

I frequently review business books and essentially look for a few things. I wish to learn or understand something, gain ideas, be inspired, and, to some extent, be entertained.

I must say I found this book quite hard-going and didn’t feel it met too many of the outcomes I look for when reading a business book.

Having said that, I readily accept that Simon wasn’t aiming at an audience that looked like me.

The book is clearly an academic work, replete with citations to sources of information, data, and references to prior work.

Simon uses a broad definition of corruption. He accepts the more traditional definitions of malfeasance, nonfeasance, and misfeasance but adds another element: indifference to the-public good. Quite broad-ranging, but difficult not to accept. He provides a number of interesting case studies that demonstrate hypocrisy, hubris, contempt, self-interest, and moral laxity, amongst other things. A poor indictment of human nature, but one to which, sadly, we can all relate.

Dr Bennett notes that the book’s key analytical tool, actor-network theory (ANT), can be used to understand the ongoing Post Office scandal.

He said:
“To better defend themselves, the Post Office and Fujitsu created a powerful actor-network of misinformation and disinformation that included the claim that Fujitsu employees had no unaudited access to Horizon Post Office terminals, where, on Post Office boss Nick Read’s own admission, they did. An example of institutional mendacity similar to the lies told by the police about Hillsborough? After all the mayhem of Hillsborough and similar disasters, it seems the rich and powerful continue to believe they can lie with impunity. Why is that?”.There are several attempts throughout the book to define ANT, and some left my head spinning. The closest I came across that I ‘think’ explains it to me is “Actor-network theory explains how prime-movers such as entrepreneurs, bankers, politicians, guerrilla leaders, crime bosses, and religious leaders act on the world to achieve their aims and objectives.”

I’m sure some of these groups would not want to be lumped in with others, so I guess there are wide variations in participation. I would probably add the word 'some’ rather than tarring them all with the same brush, for example, some entrepreneurs, some politicians, or some religious leaders.

There are a number of case studies to illustrate the concept Simon Bennett is promulgating, and they are interesting and varied. The case studies are a collection of references to academic papers, theories, and accounts by observers or participants, but there is no real flow.

It can be quite challenging to read as you switch between different references. I found it difficult to separate fact from opinion and wasn’t sure of the authenticity or accuracy of the details provided in references to prior work.

This was the first book I have read that had over 60 pages of glossary and more than 20 pages of bibliography in a book of only 221 pages in total!

However, as I mentioned, the target audience is academics who are familiar with research papers that cite peer-reviewed articles, etc., but I found the constant citations and references distracting.

The book may, as it suggests, appeal to safety practitioners, risk managers, and accident investigators.

It’s not something to help you through a long train or plane journey, and it's very much a text book rather than a fascinating read.

It took me a while to wade through the book, and I suggest you need a detailed and deep interest in the topic if you are going to take it on.

Corruption and the Management of Public Safety: The Governance of Technological Systems is written by Simon Ashley Bennett and published by Routledge.