Jamie Wardman | University of Nottingham (original) (raw)

Papers by Jamie Wardman

Overview The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was established in 2002 by the European Parlia... more Overview The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was established in 2002 by the European Parliament and the Council on proposal form the European Commission to help rebuild consumer confidence in the safety of the food chain following a series of food scares in Europe during the 1990s. EFSA is responsible for giving sound independent scientific advice on all matters related to food and feed safety to support the development of future legislation and policies and for the provision of risk communication in all areas of its remit. This research was commissioned by EFSA to provide an independent critical review of the Authority"s risk communication activities in relation to official opinions on the safety of foods in four cases: BSE in goats; wild and farmed fish; semicarbazide in baby food; and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). These cases were selected by EFSA for the focus of the review to reflect a variety of different communication contexts and challenges that the Authority faces in the course of its day-today work. Risk communication materials associated with these cases from July 2003 to March 2008 were examined as part of the review.

Routledge eBooks, Dec 1, 2017

Risk Analysis

Misconduct by business and political leaders during the pandemic is feared to have impacted peopl... more Misconduct by business and political leaders during the pandemic is feared to have impacted people's adherence to protective measures that would help to safeguard against the spread of COVID‐19. Addressing this concern, this article theorizes and tests a model linking ethical leadership with workplace risk communication—a practice referred to as ‘safety voice’ in the research literature. Our study, conducted with 511 employees from UK companies, revealed that ethical leadership is positively associated with greater intention to engage in safety voice regarding COVID‐19. We also find that this association is mediated by relations with the perceived health risk of COVID‐19 and ambiguity about ethical decision making in the workplace. These findings therefore underscore the importance of good ethical conduct by leaders for ensuring that health and safety risks are well understood and communicated effectively by organizational members particularly during crises. We discuss the theor...

Academy of Management Proceedings

Croatian Film Clubs Association, Jun 10, 2015

Presentation at Society for Animation Studies Conference

This paper discusses the use of social media as a means for interpreting and engaging users with ... more This paper discusses the use of social media as a means for interpreting and engaging users with open government data. As a case study, we describe FearSquare, an application that allows people to interact with public UK crime statistics in a way that is specific to their own, individual, everyday life by leveraging the popular social media service FourSquare. Results suggest that coupling FourSquare user location history data with crime data provides some form of added value to an already publically available dataset.

Journal of Risk Research, 2020

The transboundary dynamics of COVID-19 present an unprecedented test of organisational resilience... more The transboundary dynamics of COVID-19 present an unprecedented test of organisational resilience. In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS), a talisman of collective fortitude against disease and illness, has struggled to cope with inadequate provision of virus tests, ventilators, and personal protective equipment needed to fight the pandemic. In this paper, we reflect on the historic dynamics and strategic priorities that have undermined the NHS's attempts to navigate these troubled times. We invoke the organisational resilience literature to address 'the good, the bad and the ugly' of preparedness in readiness and response to the current pandemic. In particular, we draw on Meyer's (1982) seminal work on 'adaptation to jolts', excavating current preparedness failings. We argue an overreliance on perceived efficiency benefits of 'lean production' and 'just in time' continuity planning superseded strategic redundancy and slack in the system. This strategic focus was not simply the result of a failure in foresight, but rather a failure to act adaptively on knowledge of the known threats and weaknesses spotlighted by earlier projections of an inevitable pandemic threat. In conclusion, we consider how the UK Government and NHS must now undergo a phase of 'readjustment' in Meyer's terms, in light of these failings. We suggest that independent responsibility for national future preparedness should be handed to the NHS free from political interference. This would operate under the umbrella of a national emergency preparedness, resilience and response public body, enshrined in law, and similar in governance to the current Bank of England. This will help ensure that foresight is accompanied by durability and fortitude in safeguarding the UK against future pandemic threats.

Energy Policy, 2018

This paper reports on the current state of Demand Side Response (DSR) in the UKan early adoptor a... more This paper reports on the current state of Demand Side Response (DSR) in the UKan early adoptor amongst advanced economiesand the role of the end user in determining its future. Through 21 expert interviews we establish the current state of DSR, and expectations for its development. Whilst non-domestic DSR appears healthy, if fragile, domestic DSR is considered to be currently unviable, it's future success dependant on market innovations. In following how that situation is expected to change, we highlight key assumptions about prospective end users. These assumptions are shaping the efforts of the industry actors tasked with delivering DSR. We identify two visions of the user, one passive whilst technologies automate on their behalf, the other integrated to the point of themselves being an automaton. We detail a series of concerns about the limitations of these user visions, and the ability of industry to reach beyond them towards a more differentiated view. We conclude with a call to broaden the institutional landscape tasked with delivering DSR, in order to foster a greater diversity of end user roles, and ultimately greater demand responsiveness from a broader user base.

Digital media is increasingly seen as an important instrument in the delivery of public communica... more Digital media is increasingly seen as an important instrument in the delivery of public communication about health, environmental and technological risks. Drawing on research in risk communication, cultural studies, and methods of Critical Design we present the evaluation of a provocative digital hack, Fearsquare, which provides users with personally contextualized risk information drawn from UK government 'open data' crime maps cross-referenced with check-ins from the location-based social network Foursquare. Data collected from an 'in-the-wild' study is analysed via a corpus of Twitter discourse. We discuss how the strength and variety of public responses to Fearsquare show how the release of the application created an opportunity for people to publicly reinterpret and explore the aesthetic tensions between risk and fear, and reflect upon the possible uses of open data and social media by digital designers. We critically reflect on the concepts of users, technology, crime, danger and fear and conclude how these interwoven issues present an important challenge for researchers and designers wishing to engage in projects that involve the communication of risk.

Journal of Risk Research, 2014

ABSTRACT Kasperson’s reflections on the ‘state of the art’ in risk communication thinking and pra... more ABSTRACT Kasperson’s reflections on the ‘state of the art’ in risk communication thinking and practice set out an ambitious programmatic vision of how future progress in effective risk communication might be achieved. In this critical but supportive response, I first outline two perspectives on how progress in risk communication might be evaluated. This is followed by some discussion relating these issues to the sociocultural nature of risk communication thinking and practice, and the normative basis of underlying assumptions and ideas of effectiveness. It is suggested that inasmuch as the practical application of effective risk communication requires knowledge of human thinking and behaviour, then further considerations of some sociocultural regularities, contingencies and varieties in risk communication thinking and behaviour within particular contexts should also have practical applications.

Journal of Risk Research, 2006

Editorials and commentaries in academic journals can perform a useful function in the social scie... more Editorials and commentaries in academic journals can perform a useful function in the social sciences, by bringing different ideas and perspectives to the fore they may help to punctuate academic discourse and lead to a more focused debate about the development, validity and utility of a particular concept or theme of research. In this respect, Sjoberg’s (2006) editorial of this issue, ‘Will the real meaning of affect please stand up?’ is a timely critique of a burgeoning area of risk perception research.

Journal of Public Health Policy, 2006

Governments and commentators perceive the public to be prone t to terrorist attacks-conventional ... more Governments and commentators perceive the public to be prone t to terrorist attacks-conventional or involving chemical, biolog weapons. Evidence from five such incidents suggests that the pub panic, although people can change their behaviours and attitudes of themselves being exposed to a terrorist incident. Behavioural divided into acts of omission, such as not making unnecessary jo commission, such as taking prophylactic medication despite the in effects. Evidence suggests that the public are aware of these diffe adopt responses proportionate to the risk. Drawing upon the lite and natural sciences, our discussion encompasses differing ris terrorist threats and consequences of attacks. How do fear and anx behavioural responses to amplify or attenuate perceptions tha through risk communication undertaken by authorities?

Journal of Risk Research, 2022

The design of technological interventions to motivate behaviour-based reductions in end-user ener... more The design of technological interventions to motivate behaviour-based reductions in end-user energy consumption has recently been identified as a priority for the HCI community. Previous interventions have produced promising results, but have typically focused on domestic energy consumption. By contrast, this paper focuses on the workplace context, which presents very different opportunities and challenges. For instance, financial consequences, which have proved successful as motivations in the domestic environment, are not present in the workplace in the context of employees. We describe the outcome of a sequence of workshops that focussed on understanding employee perceptions of energy use in the workplace, with the locus of activity on energy intervention design. Using a grounded theory analysis, we produced a framework of key themes detailing user perceptions and energy intervention design considerations. Our findings provide a framework of considerations for the design of succe...

In this paper, we present Fearsquare, an application that allows people to engage with Government... more In this paper, we present Fearsquare, an application that allows people to engage with Government Open Data in a way that is contextualised to their own, individual, everyday life. The application mashes geolocated crime statistics with personal check-ins registered with the social media service FourSquare to give users a realistic representation of the levels of crime that occur in the places that they frequent or visit. The application is presented as an example of how Open Data can be given individual context and tailored for used in the field of personal informatics, as well as an example of how social media can be used to stimulate engagement with, as well as facilitate access and add value to, such data.

Energy Research & Social Science