Research

This research theme explores how organisations (and the organisation of multiple organisations) anticipate and respond to system crisis. It explores what assumptions regarding the motivation and the capacity of organisations underpin system-related regulatory regimes that are supposed to ensure system functioning. Furthermore, this research theme is interested in the ways in which instruments and institutional arrangements respond to system crisis and apparent failure.

This research theme is interested in the risk regulation of new technologies as well as the devel-opment of new technologies of risk regulation. These issues arise in particular in relation to themes of sustainability, defined here as making decisions for the ‘long term’ by seeking to require a minimum of resources Innovation and sustainability are therefore both about the outcome as well as the character of the regulatory instruments themselves. This research theme is interested in the core area of sustainability, namely the environment, but also how these ideas travel to other domains, such as finance.

One of the key emerging themes in the contemporary literature has been reputation, in particular the way in which organisations seek to maintain and enhance their reputation through particular responses to challenges from their environment. Reputation (and the related interested in blame) is thus inherently linked to issues of legitimacy and various means through which organisations are held to account. This research theme will look at reputation and legitimacy at the organisational level, but will move the focus on reputation to the inter-organisational level, namely how systems or ‘fields’ seek to maintain their reputation.

Cross-cutting these three themes is a shared interest in comparative work that explores regulatory regimes on the basis of their multi-level problem-solving capacity that continues the existing CARR interest in systems of measurement, standardisation and valuation. Further, these themes built on the existing interest in both operational and institutional design dimensions. These three themes are overlapping and this overlap gives rise to a set of related research concerns in their own right.

Reconnect

RECONNECT investigates how calls for more ‘responsive’ administrative state institutions have developed – both among citizens and politicians – and how the administrative state has sought to become more responsive, especially when simultaneously faced with expectations of neutrality and impartiality. More details here

Regulatory Capitalism and Development in Latin America: The Mexican Experience in Comparative Perspective 

Supported by the British Academy’s Newton Advanced Fellowship programme, this research project seeks to build collaborative research capacity between the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico-City and CARR. Led by Mauricio Dussage-Laguna (CIDE), this project brings together international researchers in regulation to advance research into regulation and development as well as a series of seminars and workshops at CIDE and at CARR. More details here

Information Cultures in Food Safety Cultures

Over the past six years, CARR and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have promoted research co-production through the shared funding of post-doctoral researchers. This agreement started with the ESRC-secondment of Dr Julien Etienne and was subsequently continued through co-financing by LSE and the FSA of a two year-position for Dr Jeremy Brice (2016-18) and, since 2018, Dr Jose Bolanos. The funding is to encourage issue-specific and cumulative work that applies research directly to practice and is part of the wider FSA programme on Regulating Our Future. Watch a video here

Quantification, Administrative Capacity and Democracy (QUAD)

This project is being conducted in collaboration with the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation at Mines ParisTech (France), the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University (Germany), the Department of Management Accounting and Control at Helmut-Schmidt University Hamburg (Germany) and the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University (Netherlands). More details here

TransCrisis

This Horizon2020-funded project explored the transboundary leadership capacity of the European Union across sectors and levels of governance. More detail here

Regulation in Crisis

This ESRC-funded seminar series advanced the debate about (i) regulation in sectors in crisis, (ii) regulation as source of crisis, and (iii) regulation as a field of study in crisis. More detail here

Organizing for Societal Security and Crisis Management (GOVCAP)

This project considered national institutions and capacities to manage societal security. This project was led by the University of Bergen and was funded by the Norwegian Research Council. More detail here

Risk Culture Project

This project increased understanding of ‘risk culture’ by focusing on the ‘cultural drivers’ that influence the risk taking and control activities of banks and other financial institutions. More detail here

• Research 2010-2013
• Research 2005-2010
• Research 2000-2005