Accidents and Emergencies:
Risk, Welfare and Safety in Europe
and North America, c. 1750-2000

Keynote speakers
Professor Bill Luckin (University of Bolton, UK)
Dr Arwen Mohun (University of Delaware, USA)

Context and aims

We live in a society obsessed with risk and safety. Via a medley of 
state-related and commercial agencies, we insure ourselves against the 
possibility of death, ill-health, accident, theft and unemployment, 
subjecting every facet of our lives to the calculus of risk. Meanwhile, 
a battery of signs, leaflets, manuals and adverts spread the message of 
‘health and safety’, reminding us of the dangers lurking in our everyday 
actions.
Equally, notions of risk and safety go to the heart of our sense of 
collective welfare, and the complex relations of self, society and the 
State, and public and private agency. Indeed, for some sociologists, we 
live in a ‘risk society’, premised on the ‘reflexive’ processing of 
information, the prevention of the accidental and the unexpected, and 
the anxious desire to predict – even control – the future.

The aim of this conference is to take stock of the present by focussing 
on modern Europe and North America from roughly 1750 onwards. It welcomes:
 historians from all sub-fields (social, medical, cultural, etc.)
 scholars from other disciplines such as sociology and cultural studies.
Risk, welfare and safety have long been sites of historical inquiry. 
This conference takes this literature as its point of departure, and 
encourages both general and trans-national appraisals of the history and 
nature of modern ‘risk societies’, as well as accounts which focus on 
particular technologies, practices and discourses.

In sum, the aim of ‘Accidents and Emergencies’ is to:
 rethink the history of risk, welfare and safety;
 encourage a more integrated approach to their empirical study and 
conceptualisation;
 open up new historical and sociological perspectives through which we 
might better grasp the present.

Format and themes

This will be a three-day conference: 9, 10 & 11 September 2013, to be 
held at Oxford Brookes University and supported by the University of 
Portsmouth.

We intend that the papers should be pre-circulated, in a draft form of 
around 5,000 words (though we appreciate this will not be possible in 
all cases).

Papers – conceptual and empirical – are invited which address one or 
more of the following themes:

1. Conceptualising and historicising ‘risk society’: the work of Beck, 
Giddens, Luhmann and Ewald – and others
2. The politics of risk and solidarity: liberalism, social democracy and 
neo-liberalism
3. Selling risk and safety: mixed economies of welfare, and the 
insurance and safety industries
4. Statistics, temporality and the calculus of risk: histories of 
actuarial probability
5. Industrial risks (i): pollution and the environment
6. Industrial risks (ii): technology and workplace accidents
7. Shock, trauma and sensation: representing accidents and emergencies
8. Logistics of risk and safety: emergency services and technologies
9. Preventing accidents (i): surveillance, inspection and maintenance
10. Preventing accidents (ii): health and safety education
11. Transnational risks and exchanges: policies, innovations and 
institutions
12. Key words: meanings of ‘safety’, ‘risk’, ‘probability’ and 
‘accident’ in particular contexts
Over the three days we would like speakers to raise the salient issues 
of their papers in order to leave as much time as possible for 
discussion and feedback. The conference language will be English.
We intend to publish a selection of the papers in the form of an edited 
volume or special issue of a journal.

Contacts

Expressions of interest to: [log in to unmask]

These should include:

 a brief ‘bio’ (detailing institution, publications, research 
interests, etc.)
 a proposal/abstract (of roughly 300 words), indicating the theme or 
themes for which you wish to be considered.
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 31 January 2013.
Alternatively, if you are interested in attending as a delegate please 
email to reserve a place.
Conference organisation enquiries: [log in to unmask]
Organisers: Dr Tom Crook (Oxford Brookes University) and Dr Mike 
Esbester (University of Portsmouth).