Dr Brian MacGillivray
Mellon Sawyer Seminar Research Fellow

bhm25@cam.ac.uk

My current research project is looking at the role that heuristics play in shaping risk regulation regimes and outcomes. The basic idea is that it's not merely cognitive heuristics which are at work; instead, scientists, lawmakers, and regulators use a series of deliberative rules of thumb in evaluating risks and selecting options for their management. I'm looking at how these heuristics evolve, how they are legitimised, what biases or blindspots they produce, and ultimately, what all of this means for debates about how best to govern risks to public and environmental health.

Before coming to CRASSH, I was a researcher at Delft University of Technology, Lancaster University, and Cranfield University. In addition to risk regulation, I'm interested in the devices that people use to make sense out of risk issues (e.g. metaphors, analogies); the way that organisations detect and interpret cues during crisis periods (e.g. water quality incidents); and potential applications of the cognitive continuum theory to studies of risk perception.


Selected Publications

MacGillivray, B.H., Alcock, R.E. and Busby, J.S., Is risk-based regulation feasible? The case of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), Risk Analysis, in press.

Alcock, R.E., MacGillivray, B.H. and Busby, J.S., Understanding the mismatch between the demands of risk assessment and practice of scientists - The case of Deca-BDE, Environment International, in press.

Busby, J.S., Alcock, R.E. and MacGillivray, B.H., Interrupting the social amplification of risk process: a case study in collective emissions reduction, Environmental Science and Policy, 12(3): 297-308, 2009.

MacGillivray, B.H., Alcock, R.E. and Busby, J.S., The unintended consequences of risk regulation, In: Safety, Reliability and Risk Analysis: Theory, Methods and Applications, Martorell, S., Soares, C.G. and Barnett, J. (eds.), CRC Press-Taylor & Francis Group, Vols 1-4: 415-419, 2009.

MacGillivray, B.H., Sociological and psychological constraints to learning from failure, In: Water Contamination Emergencies: Collective Responsibility, Thompson, K.C. and Gray, J. (eds.), Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing, Cambridge, 389-396, 2009.

MacGillivray, B.H. and Pollard, S.J.T., What can water utilities do to improve risk management within their business functions? An improved tool and application of process benchmarking, Environment International, 34(8): 1120-1131, 2008.

MacGillivray, B.H., Strutt, J.E., Sharp, J.V., Hamilton, P.D. and Pollard, S.J.T., Benchmarking risk management within the international water utility sector. Part II: A survey of eight water utilities, Journal of Risk Research, 10(1): 105-123, 2007.

MacGillivray, B.H., Hamilton, P.D., Strutt, J.E. and Pollard, S.J.T., Risk analysis strategies in the water utility sector: an inventory of applications for better and more credible decision-making, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 36: 85-139, 2006.


 

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