Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry (Routledge Revivals)

Originally published in 1998. While there is a growing academic literature on corporate crime, much of this focuses upon variants of economic or financial crimes; there is a relative absence of studies of safety, health and/or environmental crimes. This is curious given that recent years have witnessed a resurgence in popular, academic and indeed state attention to questions related to environmental degradation and human safety. Certainly in the latter context there is some recognition that environmental degradation must be understood partly in terms of environmental crimes by corporations. Moreover, recent experience in both the US and the UK attests to the fact that there is no ineluctable trend towards safer and healthier workplaces, as deregulatory movements have resulted in increased risks for most workers and, this text argues, an increased opportunity for, and incidence of, safety crimes. At the centre of environmental, safety and health isses lie the chemicals industries. These industries are of strategic importance to national economies, while also having almost unique hazard and risk potential and it is for these reasons that these are the focus of this text. Any understanding of the nature of these types of corporate crimes, and thus any recognition of the potential for their more effective regulation, requires an analysis that is grounded in more general sociological concerns and in political economy. For this reason, this text emphasises the need for understandings of the nature of contemporary and emergent forms of corporate organisation, of their place in contemporary economies, and of the relationships between these forms and state formations. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Dedication 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Preface 10 Acknowledgements 13 PART I: CAPITALISM, CORPORATIONS AND CRIME 14 1 Dreams of Capitalism: Neoliberalism and Contemporary Economies 16 Introduction: Capitalist Success Stories 16 Capitalism as Market Economy 16 The Organization of Contemporary Business Firms 20 Politics, Markets and Regulation 23 Externalities and the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ 28 Neoliberalism: Some Critiques 30 Politics 38 A Politics and Sociology of Economic Solutions 44 2 Constructing and Conceptualising Capitalisms: Beyond Neoliberalism 47 Introduction 47 States, Capitals and Hegemony 48 Globalisation, Capital and Nation-States 61 National and International Capitalisms 70 Conclusion: Costing Capitalist ‘Success’ 83 3 Corporate Crime 96 Introduction 96 Europe 96 North America 101 American Sociology, Corruption and Crime 105 From Criminology to a Sociology of Law 112 White-collar Crime as a Concept 117 Corporate Crime 120 A Sociology and Politics of Corporate Organisation 129 PART II: CORPORATE CRIME IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY 138 4 Understanding ‘Accidents’ in the Chemical Industry 140 Introduction 140 The Causes of Accidents in the Chemical Industry: Some Empirical Evidence 141 The Causes of Accidents in the Chemical Industry: Towards a Theoretical Understanding 146 Discursive Formations and Discursive Practices 155 Science, Applied Science, and Chemical Engineering 159 Industrial Accidents and Political Economy 161 Conclusion: Safety, Industrial Accidents, and Corporate Crime 165 5 The Corporate Production of Safety and Environmental Crimes in the Chemical Industry: The Case of Major Hazards 170 Introduction: Crime and Major Hazards 170 Safety Management and the Corporate Production of Crime 171 Environmental Protection and the Corporate Production of Crime 188 Conclusion 202 6 Bhopal, Union Carbide and the International Chemical Industry 207 Introduction 207 The Emergence of a Friendlier, Law-Abiding Corporate Capitalism? 208 Explaining the Disaster at Bhopal 210 ‘Union Carbide Corporation TNC’ 215 Rhetoric, Rationalisation, and Ideology 219 The Bhopal Settlement in Perspective 224 Conclusion 228 PART III: HAZARDS, REGULATION AND CLASS 234 7 Policing, Regulation and Ideology 236 Introduction 236 Two Versions of Regulation 242 Conclusion 257 8 Hegemony and Risk 260 Introduction 260 Hazardous Production and Modes of Governance 263 The Emergence of Risk Assessment 269 Risk, Safety and the Workplace 279 Reconstructing a Hegemonic Mode of Governance? 283 Conclusion 286 9 Conclusion: Regulating Toxic Capitalism 293 Introduction 293 Regulating Capital 295 Regulating Capital: The Politics of Criminalisation 299 Regulating Capital: The Politics of Deterrence and Rehabilitation 305 Regulation, Democratisation and Socialisation 319 Conclusion 325 Bibliography 330 Index 376 Originally published in 1998, this book focuses on the chemicals industries, which are of strategic importance to national economies, while also having almost unique hazard and risk potential.