Corruption in the management of technology threatens public safety, says University of Leicester academic in new book

A new book, written by a University of Leicester academic, will shed light on how corruption in the governance of technology threatens public safety, economic success and reputation.

Corruption and the Management of Public Safety: The Governance of Technological Systems, written by Dr Simon Bennett (University of Leicester School of Business), investigates the role that graft has played in several world scandals.

Graft is a common and persistent social pathogen, as much an affliction of the developed as the developing world.

The book uses case studies of technological failures to demonstrate the link between graft and public safety.

Case studies include the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster, the 2007 Adam Air crash, the ongoing Volkswagen emissions scandal and the 2020 Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion.

The book includes policy recommendations to tackle graft and its associated risks.

Although not included in the book, Dr Bennett notes that the book’s key analytical tool, actor-network theory (ANT), can be used to understand the ongoing Post Office scandal.

Dr Bennett 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?”.

Dr Bennett is an expert in the social, economic and political origins of risk.

Corruption and the Management of Public Safety: The Governance of Technological Systems will be published as part of the Routledge Advances in Management and Business Studies book series.

The book is available for pre-order from 13 February, 2024 and will ship from 5 March, 2024.