The Grenfell Tower atrocity

MacLeod, Gordon

doi:10.1080/13604813.2018.1507099

Cited by 47 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…However, while these debates have helped bring problems of urban class inequality into mainstream focus, they have often worked to de-race the violence of neoliberal urbanism. While some commentators have insisted that race is absolutely central for understanding the processes that rendered the Grenfell Tower structurally unsafe, mainstream commentary has often framed the fire as an exclusive question of inadequate fire safety protective measures, combustible cladding, the Fire Brigade’s ‘stay-put’ policy and, more broadly, poverty and marginalisation (MacLeod, 2018; McRobbie, 2017; Madden, 2017; Shildrick, 2018). The public inquiry, set up to ‘examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire’ (Grenfell Tower Inquiry, 2017) has largely replicated this focus.…”

Section: Global Cities Neoliberal Urbanism and The Elision Of Racementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For many commentators it is within this (domestic) context of neoliberal urbanism and the "dark side" of the global city that the Grenfell fire must be analysed and understood. As Brenna cladding, the Fire Brigade's "stay-put" policy and, more broadly, of poverty and marginalisation (MacLeod, 2018;Madden, 2017;McRobbie, 2017;Shildrick, 2018). The Public Inquiry, set up to "examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire" ("Grenfell Tower Inquiry," 2017), has largely replicated this focus.…”

Section: Introduction/ghosts Of Grenfellmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The fire this time: Grenfell, racial capitalism and the urbanisation of empire

Danewid

2019

European Journal of International Relations

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Over the last few years, an emergent body of International Relations scholarship has taken an interest in the rise of global cities and the challenges they bring to existing geographies of power. In this article, I argue that a focus on race and empire should be central to this literature. Using the Grenfell Tower fire in London as a starting point, the article shows that global cities are part of a historical and ongoing imperial terrain. From London to New York, São Paulo to Cape Town, Singapore to Cairo, the ‘making’ of global cities has typically gone hand in hand with racialized forms of displacement, dispossession and police violence. Drawing on the literature on racial capitalism, as well as Aimé Césaire’s image of the ‘boomerang’, I show that these strategies build on practices of urban planning, slum administration and law-and-order policing long experimented with in the (post)colonies. By examining the colonial dimensions of what many assume to be a strictly national problem for the welfare state, the article thus reveals global cities as part of a much wider cartography of imperial and racial violence. This not only calls into question the presentism of scholarship that highlights the ‘newness’ of neoliberal urbanism. In demonstrating how global cities and colonial borderlands are bound together through racial capitalism, it also exposes the positionality of scholars and policymakers that seek to counter the violence of neoliberalism with a nostalgic return to the post-1945 welfare state. As the Grenfell fire revealed, the global city is less a new type of international actor or governance structure than an extension and reconfiguration of the domestic space of empire.

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Section: Global Cities Neoliberal Urbanism and The Elision Of Racementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction/ghosts Of Grenfellmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fire this time: Grenfell, racial capitalism and the urbanisation of empire

Danewid

2019

European Journal of International Relations

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“…Below, I discuss further what I think is best characterised as an attitude of contempt by the KCTMO for Grenfell residents, but for now it should be noted that the nature of this contemptuous relationship was perhaps nowhere better captured than in the refurbishment of the Tower which was ultimately to prove fatal for at least 72 of its residents – and, in particular, the disastrous decision to clad the Tower which, according to one local resident, was taken ‘because it was an eyesore for the rich people who live opposite’ (Akala, musician and local resident, C4 News, 15 June 2017). Such relationships have been said to typify wider processes of gentrification and social cleansing in many of the UK's inner cities, but most notably in London (MacLeod 2018).…”

Section: Grenfell As a Site Of State‐corporate Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Home as a Site of State‐Corporate Violence: Grenfell Tower, Aetiologies and Aftermaths

Tombs

2020

Howard J Crime Justice

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Focusing on the aftermaths and consequences of the Grenfell Tower fire, this article reveals the factors which combined to produce a fire that could have such devastating effects. Further, it delineates the discrete ways in which distinct types of harms -physical, emotional and psychological, cultural and relational, and financial and economic -continue to be produced by a combination of State and corporate acts and omissions. Some of these harms are readily apparent, others are opaque and obscured. It concludes by showing how failures to mitigate these factors constitute one manifestation of the more general phenomenon of 'social murder'.While research, writing and activism around the phenomena of corporate and State crime have burgeoned since they first reached mainstream academic attention in the 1960s, such crimes remain relatively obscured by the crimes of the usual suspects. This is despite the fact that corporate and State crimes and harms kill, injure, defraud, and poison many, many more people than so-called conventional crimes; moreover, they often do so relatively silently, with their role and mutual complicity rarely becoming apparent and, if attaining visibility, are rarely brought within the purview of crime, let alone violent crime (Tombs and Whyte 2015). Finally, if curiously, they are rarely exposed in relation to 'the home'.Here I cast a critical lens on a recent atrocity -the fire at Grenfell Tower in West London -and examine how we might focus on this as an instance of State-corporate violence. In indicating the ways in which a combination of State and corporate acts and omissions resulted in a fire producing a range of social harms, I bring to the fore how 'home' can be the site of State-corporate criminality and harm.The article begins by setting out some of the key parameters of corporate crime, then State-corporate crime, before indicating why, and how, many of these are best understood as crimes of violence. The main sections of 120 C

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“…Their attitude is: how dare so many ethnic minority foreigners who are not well-off live in these ugly flats … They don't care about us, they don't listen to us. It's as if they want us to move out (MacLeod, 2018). "…”

Section: Medias Influencementioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation into the construction industry’s view on fire prevention in high-rise buildings post Grenfell

Mohamed

Edwards

Mateo-Garcia

et al. 2019

IJBPA

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore contemporary attitudes amongst UK construction professionals regards fire safety post the Grenfell Tower disaster. Specifically, the research examines practitioner’s perceptions of fire safety design, material specification, construction and maintenance of high-rise blocks throughout a building’s whole life cycle. Design/methodology/approach A multi-methodology approach was adopted that utilises a mix of research methods. Extant literature and media content is used as a secondary data source, providing a more insightful interpretivist analysis – the results of which guided the development of the survey’s main question set. Primary survey data are sourced from structured interviews and questionnaires completed by participating industry professionals and built environment undergraduate students using non-representative sampling methods. In addition, a Grenfell Tower special advisory panel member was interviewed to add further validity to the overall findings. Findings The quantitative findings present evidence to suggest that the Grenfell disaster (and media storm that has surrounded this event) has raised the general level of fire safety knowledge and competency amongst construction professionals. However, qualitative feedback from the special advisory panel member suggests specific fire prevention knowledge remains elusive within both industry and taught programmes at Higher Education Institutes. As a consequence, changes in the taught curriculum are proposed together with an extension of the role of facilities managers in practice to cover fire safety in greater depth. Originality/value This paper provides thoughtful insights into the contemporary discourse on fire safety within the UK construction industry. The research also provides critical suggestions to both industry and policy makers which seek to prevent a repeat tragedy occurring again.

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The Grenfell Tower atrocity

Cited by 47 publications

References 26 publications

The fire this time: Grenfell, racial capitalism and the urbanisation of empire

The fire this time: Grenfell, racial capitalism and the urbanisation of empire

Home as a Site of State‐Corporate Violence: Grenfell Tower, Aetiologies and Aftermaths

An investigation into the construction industry’s view on fire prevention in high-rise buildings post Grenfell

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