Managing Health and Safety at Sea (2): Limits to the Conventional Approach

Abstract

The previous chapter found that research on health and safety-management arrangements at sea suggests that despite the now well-established presence of the ISM Code in maritime regulation there may be significant weaknesses in its application on board ships. However, most of the work reviewed there did not provide an informed understanding of the reasons for these regulatory weaknesses. We have argued that to do so requires a more sociologically informed view of the current character of work at sea and it is to the few examples of such studies that we turn in the present chapter in order to examine why the effects of the ISM Code may be limited.