Accidents and Apathy: The Construction of the 'Robens Philosophy of Occupational Safety and Health Regulation in Britain, 1961-1974

This article advances a more nuanced historical understanding of the Report and its ethos—the ‘Robens philosophy’—than hitherto developed, situating its assumptions about accidents, regulation and the role of the state in the social, economic and political context of Britain in the 1960s and early 1970s. Highlighting the interaction between these trends and long-established regulatory practices, the article argues that the turn to ‘self-regulation’ heralded by the Robens Report was highly convincing from a political and regulatory perspective at the time it was promulgated.
Source: Social History of Medicine - Category: History of Medicine Authors: Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research