Power and politics in public inquiries: bloody sunday 1972

Kenny, Kate; Dochartaigh, Niall Ó

doi:10.1080/2158379x.2021.1890316

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Our case is similar to other such cases where official findings were later overturned, such as Bloody Sunday (Kenny & Ó Dochartaigh, 2021) and Hillsborough (Scraton, 2013;Cooper & Lapsley, 2019). However, our case differs in respect of one feature, namely that it involves not one official 'black box' but two.…”

Section: ---Insert Table 1 Here ---supporting

confidence: 89%

“…A second body of literature focuses on official sensemaking about the crisis or disaster during post-hoc inquiries or investigations (Brown, 2005(Brown, , 2004(Brown, , 2000Brown & Jones, 2000;Gephart, 1984Gephart, , 1993Gephart, , 2007Boudes & Laroche, 2009;Whittle & Mueller, 2012;Ainsworth & Hardy, 2012;Mueller, Carter & Whittle, 2015;Scraton, 2016;Kenny & Ó Dochartaigh, 2021).…”

Section: Crisis and Disaster Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second body of literature focuses on official sensemaking about the crisis or disaster during post-hoc inquiries or investigations (Ainsworth and Hardy, 2012;Boudes and Laroche, 2009;Brown, 2000Brown, , 2004Brown, , 2005Brown and Jones, 2000;Gephart, 1984Gephart, , 1993Gephart, , 2007Kenny and Ó Dochartaigh, 2021;Mueller et al, 2015;Scraton, 2016;Whittle and Mueller, 2012). Here, actors working in an official capacity undertake their duty in investigating the disaster or crisis to construct an official finding, ruling or verdict about what happened, who (or what) was to blame and what lessons could be learnt (Gephart, 2007).…”

Section: Crisis and Disaster Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Cooper and Lapsley (2021) show, it took a 30-year battle by the families of the deceased and their supporters to achieve a new inquiry, which concluded ‘that the 96 people who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed, overturning the verdict of accidental death at the original inquest’ (p. 22). Similarly, Kenny and Ó Dochartaigh (2021: 387) trace the 25-year campaign to ‘redress the errors of the Widgery Report into the events of Bloody Sunday’ with the publication of the new Saville Inquiry in 2010. Our aim in this article is to contribute to this third body of literature on post-inquiry sensemaking.…”

Section: Crisis and Disaster Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Official truth, applied deconstruction and post-inquiry sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash

2022

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On 2nd June 1994, an RAF Chinook helicopter crashed into the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, killing all crew members and intelligence personnel onboard. In this paper, we analyse the 17-year campaign to set aside the finding of gross negligence against the two pilots. Existing literature has tended to focus on sensemaking during the inquiries that typically follow an accident, crisis, or disaster. However, we have a more limited understanding of the post-inquiry sensemaking occurring after an inquiry has published its findings. Drawing insights from the sociology of science and sociology of knowledge, we conceptualise post-inquiry sensemaking as three phases involving a ‘black box’ being constructed and closed, re-opened and over-turned. We propose the concept of ‘applied deconstruction’ to make sense of the latter two phases. We identify the components of the ‘engine of applied deconstruction’, namely: animated actors who seek to ‘open the black box’; the building of a coalition that spans institutional sites of power; activities of discrediting the official version and crediting alternative versions; and activities of ‘lamination’ which build successive ‘layers’ of doubt. We conclude by discussing the implications arising from our case for advancing the understanding of post-inquiry sensemaking.

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Section: ---Insert Table 1 Here ---supporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Crisis and Disaster Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crisis and Disaster Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crisis and Disaster Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Official truth, applied deconstruction and post-inquiry sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash

2022

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“…The focus on written reports, frequently employing textual analysis of power discourses, is also evident in the literature on institutions and organisations (e.g. Ainsworth and Hardy, 2012;Boudes and Laroche, 2009;Brown, 2004;Kenny and Dochartaigh, 2021).…”

Section: Theorising Public Inquiriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a criminology of public inquiries: From cautious optimism to contestation in the Brook House Inquiry

Schlembach

Hart

2022

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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Although UK public inquiries garner huge amounts of public attention, there have been few systematic studies of their role in scrutinising and reforming criminal justice policy and practice. This is despite a growing number of inquiries, held under the Inquiries Act 2005, into critical matters relating to policing, justice and home affairs. This article explores the contested nature of statutory inquiries as mechanisms for accountability and opportunity for policy reform. We suggest that inquiries provide fertile grounds for criminological analysis, if we understand them as sites of contestation where political priorities compete over questions of procedure, scope and participation. Our focus is on the Brook House Inquiry into the mistreatment of detainees in a British immigration removal centre. The analysis shows a tension between the public-facing nature of inquiries and their legalistic processes.

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Public Inquiries and Policy Design

Stark,

Yates

2024

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Public inquiries regularly produce outcomes of importance to policy design. However, the policy design literature has largely ignored the many important ways that public inquiries can act as policy design tools, meaning the functions that inquiries can offer the policy designer are not properly understood. This Element addresses this gap in two ways. First, it presents a theoretical discussion, underpinned by international empirical illustrations, to explain how inquiries perform policy design roles and can be classified as procedural policy tools. It focuses on four inquiry functions – catalytic, learning, processual, and legitimation. Second, it addresses the challenge of designing inquiries that have the policy-facing capacities required to make them effective. It introduces plurality as a key variable influencing effectiveness, demonstrating its relevance to internal inquiry operations, the external inquiry environment, and policy tool selection. Thus, it combines conceptual and practical insights to speak to academic and practice orientated audiences.

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Power and politics in public inquiries: bloody sunday 1972

Cited by 8 publications

References 37 publications

Official truth, applied deconstruction and post-inquiry sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash

Official truth, applied deconstruction and post-inquiry sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash

Towards a criminology of public inquiries: From cautious optimism to contestation in the Brook House Inquiry

Public Inquiries and Policy Design

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