Commissioned by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), research teams conducted six studies to shed new light on modern-day worker protection at a time when health and safety has been lambasted in sections of the media and become the subject of reviews into its regulatory frameworks. The findings of IOSH’s five year programme – Health and Safety in a Changing World – give fresh insight into the role safety and health is now playing in a world of transient or disparate workforces, automated production and economic and political uncertainty. The final reports are now available online
Professor Robert Dingwall, the Programme’s Director, said: “IOSH’s investment in the research programme Health and Safety in a Changing World has delivered a rich resource for strategic thinking and discussion within the occupational safety and health (OSH) profession. In particular, it offers a deep analysis of the changing institutional contexts of work and employment, the evolution of management thinking and practices, and the emerging place of OSH within this.
“This analysis provides an opportunity to widely reflect on the fitness for purpose of established approaches to education, training and professional development and on the relationship between OSH professionals, managers and workers to ensure currency and connectivity of the profession in the world of work and society.”
Papers on the research projects feature in the October 2016 edition of IOSH’s academic journal, Policy and Practice in Health and Safety (PPHS). A more general view of the findings will be published by Routledge early in 2017 in a a book, Health and Safety in a Changing World, edited by Robert Dingwall and Shelley Frost.