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oapen-20.500.12657-862902023-12-23T02:35:18Z Before Grenfell Ewen, Shane Grenfell fire fire safety Justice4Grenfell Grenfell United late-capitalism poverty building regulation housing development urban planning urban redevelopment high-rise tower blocks neoliberalism deregulation mass-fatality fires london tragedy bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBL History: earliest times to present day::HBLX 21st century history: from c 2000 - bic Book Industry Communication::H Humanities::HB History::HBJ Regional & national history::HBJD European history::HBJD1 British & Irish history bic Book Industry Communication::T Technology, engineering, agriculture::TN Civil engineering, surveying & building::TNK Building construction & materials::TNKF Fire protection & safety On 14 June 2017, flames engulfed a residential block of flats in West London. 72 people lost their lives and many hundreds more were traumatised as a national ‘cladding crisis’ unfolded. Yet the Grenfell Tower fire was a disaster foretold – the culmination of successive decades of deregulation, corporate greed and institutional failure to learn from the lessons of past multiple-fatality fires. By advocating a historical approach spanning the twentieth century, Before Grenfell deepens our contemporary understanding of the events surrounding the disaster and reveals how past decisions taken by governments and industry bodies created the conditions under which the fire occurred. Drawing upon unexplored archives as well as extensive use of published records, Shane Ewen’s book traces the underlying causes of the fire through more than four decades of deregulation of fire precautions, scientific governance and building regulations by successive governments in thrall to the ideology of neoliberalism. In drawing upon several previous, and often forgotten, multiple-fatality fires, the book sheds light on the historic failures of policymakers to heed the lessons of the past in protecting vulnerable communities, arguing that good policymaking necessitates learning with history as well as learning from history. 2023-12-21T16:35:56Z 2023-12-21T16:35:56Z 2023 book ONIX_20231221_9781914477263_9 9781914477263 9781914477256 9781914477287 9781914477553 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/86290 eng IHR Shorts application/pdf n/a 9781914477263.pdf University of London Press University of London Press 10.14296/rkft3410 10.14296/rkft3410 4af45bb1-d463-422d-9338-fa2167dddc34 9781914477263 9781914477256 9781914477287 9781914477553 University of London Press London open access
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On 14 June 2017, flames engulfed a residential block of flats in West London. 72 people lost their lives and many hundreds more were traumatised as a national ‘cladding crisis’ unfolded. Yet the Grenfell Tower fire was a disaster foretold – the culmination of successive decades of deregulation, corporate greed and institutional failure to learn from the lessons of past multiple-fatality fires. By advocating a historical approach spanning the twentieth century, Before Grenfell deepens our contemporary understanding of the events surrounding the disaster and reveals how past decisions taken by governments and industry bodies created the conditions under which the fire occurred. Drawing upon unexplored archives as well as extensive use of published records, Shane Ewen’s book traces the underlying causes of the fire through more than four decades of deregulation of fire precautions, scientific governance and building regulations by successive governments in thrall to the ideology of neoliberalism. In drawing upon several previous, and often forgotten, multiple-fatality fires, the book sheds light on the historic failures of policymakers to heed the lessons of the past in protecting vulnerable communities, arguing that good policymaking necessitates learning with history as well as learning from history.
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