Carbon copy: The mock bureaucratic setting of colliery explosions in early Twentieth Century Britain and at Pike River, New Zealand

REVELEY, James and SINGLETON, John (2018). Carbon copy: The mock bureaucratic setting of colliery explosions in early Twentieth Century Britain and at Pike River, New Zealand. Journal of Management History, 24 (1), 20-36.

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Official URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110...
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-07-2017-0037

Abstract

By juxtaposing fatal colliery explosions in early twentieth century Britain and in 2010 at Pike River, New Zealand, this paper investigates the generalizability of the mock bureaucracy concept to underground coal mining disasters. The main source is published official accident inquiries; a methodological reflection justifies use of these materials. Mock bureaucracies existed in British underground coal mining milieu from the time when safety rules were first formulated in that industry context. As for Pike River, it is an exemplary case. The development in 1970s Britain of a new approach to safety management (the Robens system), and its subsequent export to New Zealand, means that a contemporary coal mine under financial duress, such as Pike River, is a prime site for mock bureaucracy to flourish. Though the concept of mock bureaucracy has been applied to an explosion in an underground coal mine before, this is the first paper to explore the concept’s historical utility and generalizability in explaining the environing context of such explosions.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Mining, Safety, Disasters, Pike River
Departments - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities > Department of Humanities
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-07-2017-0037
Page Range: 20-36
Depositing User: John Singleton
Date Deposited: 31 Aug 2017 11:44
Last Modified: 17 Mar 2021 23:35
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16621

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