THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY DALTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Vacancy ref: HUM-08944 Salary: Hours: Grade 6, 30,738 to 37,768 per annum 1 FTE Duration: Fixed term, February 2017 until 31 December 2021 Location: Responsible to: Oxford Road, Manchester Professor Penny Harvey Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews: Name: Professor Penny Harvey Email: penny.harvey@manchester.ac.uk Name: Dr Damian O Doherty Email: damian.odoherty@mbs.ac.uk ROLE BACKGROUND A research associate is needed to work on a project funded by an Endowment from BNFL entitled Holistic Decommissioning in the Nuclear Industry, directed by Professor Penny Harvey and Dr Damian O Doherty. You will be initially based at the Dalton Cumbrian Facility (DCF), which is located less than 10 km from Sellafield and the National Nuclear Laboratory, and very close to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority headquarters. You will also spend some time at the Dalton Institute and will have facilities available in the Manchester Business School and in Social Anthropology. Subject to satisfactory performance, there is an opportunity to be converted into an open-ended academic appointment at the end of the contract. A summary of the project can be found at the end of the job description. This project addresses current debates in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and storage of nuclear waste in the UK and will explore social and cultural features of organisation that might help explain prevailing understandings of risk and innovation. Early pilot studies commissioned by the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester have indicated that a series of organisational and behavioural issues might be acting to inhibit organisational transformation.
These include poor communication, conflicting assumptions, fear of failure, and mistrust. We need to explore these social and organisational issues in more depth if we are to understand how nuclear futures might be imagined and more fully engaged by wider politics and society. The project will work closely with the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester and further details of the research conducted by members of the Institute are listed on www.manchester.ac.uk/dalton. You will have a PhD (or equivalent relevant experience) in Social Anthropology or in Business and Management Studies where the theory and methods of social anthropology (or a closely related subject such as Sociology, Science Studies, etc.) have been applied. You will have experience of carrying out fieldwork, preferably with experience of studying engineers, science in industry, and fieldwork science. An excellent grasp of the wider managerial and organizational issues that inform the study and practice of science in action is an essential requirement. You should have clear evidence of writing and publication and will also have an excellent command of written and spoken English. You will be a key contributor to the joint activities and outputs of the project and will also be expected to pursue individual research within the framework of the project. A series of multiple team-authored and single authored chapters and articles will be expected to be published during the tenure of the project. You will also be involved in the planning of the research, the organisation of some events, and will keep abreast of future funding opportunities that will help extend and develop the project. Initiative, motivation, effective teamwork and liaison in complex organizations characterized by multiple stakeholders is essential, and the candidate should have excellent communication and team-working skills. Key Responsibilities, Accountabilities and Duties: You will prepare and organise, under the direction and assistance of Professor Penny Harvey and Dr Damian O Doherty a three phased structure of ethnographic fieldwork and study/write up to be completed in 5 years. You will be responsible for mapping the various social, scientific and political stakeholders in the nuclear industry and to develop a clear understanding of their institutional relations, working relations, and interactions. You will need to understand how these diverse stakeholder roles and responsibilities have changed and developed over time using ethnographic methods, interviews and the collection and analysis of archives and organizational documents. You will conduct solo and independent ethnographic fieldwork in various sites of scientific practices and expertise and in the wider domains of organization in which this science is managed. This will involve extended periods of site specific and multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork. You will liaise on a regular basis with Professor Penny Harvey, Dr Damian O Doherty and Professor Francis Livens who will act as supervisors and collaborators for the project. Under the guidance of your supervisors you will be responsible for liaising and collaborating with a range of stakeholders in nuclear reprocessing and the wider nuclear energy industry. You may be required to take a lead role in the organisation of various seminars and project workshops over the duration of the research. You will co-author with your supervisors five journal articles, reporting on the findings of the project to various different academic disciplines. You will begin to write single authored papers from year 3 of the project and have these papers submitted to peer reviewed academic journals and published by the end of the project. From Year 3 you will begin to plan and make external funding applications with a view to
meeting agreed funding expectations by the end of year 5. You will write book chapters as and when opportunities arise, and contribute a chapter to a final edited project volume. You will assist Dr O Doherty in the maintenance of a project website. The publication duties listed above refer to the duration of the post itself but it is expected that publication plans will extend beyond the life of the post and involve collaboration in further outputs arising from the project. PROJECT SUMMARY Much of the UK s civil nuclear industry is under control of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), set up by Government under the 2004 Energy Act to oversee the decommissioning and disposal of the nuclear legacy the UK had accumulated on 17 sites since the late 1940s. NDA s annual budget is 3.2 billion and the best estimate for the cost of its programme is 115 billion over more than 100 years. NDA was intended to use Management and Operations contracts for the operation of its sites, either singly or in groups. These contracts, and the associated nuclear site licenses, are held by Site License Companies (SLCs). The primary focus of the research will be the decommissioning process within Sellafield Ltd, which is the single most complex site in the UK covering 2 square miles, with over 1000 buildings, and 200 separate nuclear facilities. Sellafield houses one of the World s largest inventories of nuclear and radioactive materials, including 140 tonnes of plutonium and the Sellafield cleanup programme will cost about 80 billion. Earlier this year, Sellafield s status was changed and, from April 2016, has become a wholly owned subsidiary of NDA. The research will involve (i) multi-sited ethnographic study (ii) interviews and documentary research drawing from stakeholders, including the local government and local community groups; (iii) a survey of previous studies and of the history of media reporting of Sellafield; and (iv) targeted ethnographic work within Sellafield Ltd. Radioactive waste will be disposed of either in the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) or a deeper, Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) for Higher Activity Waste (HAW). LLWR is in west Cumbria about 10 km south of Sellafield, and is operated by a separate Site License Company. The GDF will be developed by Radioactive Waste Management Ltd (RWM), which is a subsidiary of NDA and will become the SLC for the GDF. The GDF is in the early stages of planning and is unlikely to be available before 2045. RWM also has responsibility for assessing disposability of waste packages produced by the SLCs. Mapping the nature of organisation as it pertains to these multiple institutions and their stakeholders will form an important part of the early work on this project. More specifically the project intends to understand the interdependencies and relations between: Government, which sets the policy framework in which NDA operates The NDA, the body which has strategic control of UK decommissioning Sellafield Ltd, the body which manages the Sellafield site and will become a subsidiary of NDA RWM, through the Letter of Compliance process The Office of Nuclear Regulation, the independent statutory regulator which oversees compliance with the Nuclear Installations Act, primarily concerned with operations on site The Environment Agency, the relevant environmental regulator, which oversees off-site impacts of Sellafield s activities through the statutory Environmental Permitting process Local Government (parish, district and county) and Citizens
Sellafield is also not homogeneous. Individual plants and processes are dependent on one another, but nevertheless operate as separate entities with specific performance targets. Of significance here is the construction of intra- and inter-institutional relations as internal business relations. How these operate and how they are managed in practice forms a central ambition of this research. Relationships between Sellafield and the three levels of local Government (parish, district and county) are also dynamic and complex. Community interests are also represented by the Site Stakeholder Group, and understanding these multiple organisational dynamics and interests will demand considerable research. These broach what are often sensitive and controversial issues. Sellafield s activities have caused international controversy at times, for example, particularly with the Irish and Norwegian Governments. Wider afield the research will explore the influence of European and worldwide political and institutional regulation which would include the OSPAR Convention (on protection of the marine environment of the north east Atlantic) and the Aarhus Convention (on environmental justice). A pilot study, carried out by the University of Manchester, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), Sellafield Ltd and RWM, examining holistically the life history of a single example waste stream, has provided evidence that current decommissioning processes may be sub-optimal. In particular, this initial study identified concerns that multiple layers of conservatism have led to large proportions of this waste being managed as much higher hazard material than is actually the case. This has led to increased costs and slower progress, while diverting resources from other risks. Emerging organisational and behavioural issues include poor communication, conflicting assumptions, fear of failure, and mistrust. This research will explore these social and organisational issues in more depth in order to develop a greater understanding of the possibilities that organisational development and transformation may be needed in order to effectively and efficiently manage nuclear waste. We now wish to appoint a Research Associate to build on this pilot study. Specific objectives of the study will be developed and elaborated in three phases (i) an initial scoping study (ii) a more in-depth ethnographic study of organisational practice (iii) collaborative exploration of alternatives. Phase 1 (18 months) Build relationships with key stakeholders (NNL, Sellafield Ltd, NDA, RWM) Map the stakeholders and their interactions, and develop an understanding of the diverse stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and how these have changed and developed over time; For each stakeholder group, to seek definition of their current concerns and their sense of future possibility. Identification of the key drivers of current organisational practices (possibilities include statutory responsibilities, fear of failure, over-commitment, entrenched assumptions, etc. Identification of existing forms of evidence for success and/or failure. Build a broad comparative understanding of existing social scientific work on nuclear decommissioning (including work within history of science, sociology and anthropology of science and technology, and the study of organisational practice). Phase 2 (18 months) Ethnographic research that sets out to explore specific aspects of organisational practice identified in phase 1 (e.g. development an implementation of new technologies, particular areas of over-commitment, etc.)
Exploration of how organisation at Sellafield can be understood as one of a collection of behaviours that aggregates, for example, in the form of conservatism and fear of failure Exploration of existing understandings of the relationship between technical and organisational change in Sellafield. Exploration of issues of communication within Sellafield, between Sellafield and the other government stakeholders and between Sellafield and the wider populace (e.g. through the press, the activities of the site stakeholder group, and engagements with local government) Phase 3 (2 years) Analysis of research findings and collaborative exploration of possibilities for organisational and behavioural change How must management change in order to envision and secure the optimal alignment of technical possibility and organisational change. The researcher will be initially based at the Dalton Cumbrian Facility (DCF), which is located less than 10 km from Sellafield and the National Nuclear Laboratory, and very close to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority headquarters. You will also spend some time at the Dalton Institute and will have facilities available in the School of Social Sciences. PERSON SPECIFICATION Essential Skills, Knowledge and Experience: A PhD in Social Anthropology or in Business and Management Studies where the theory and methods of social anthropology or a closely related subject such as Sociology, Science Studies, etc. have been applied; or equivalent status (applicants without a PhD must demonstrate equivalent status in terms of research experience, publication profile, etc.). Demonstrable intellectual skills of analysis and synthesis Experience of carrying out fieldwork or first-hand data collection An excellent command of written and spoken English Initiative, motivation, ability to work in teams and to liaise with other team members and project collaborators The appointment will be made subject to appropriate security clearance as required by Sellafield management. Desirable: Experience of working in research teams A background in one or more of the following fields: science studies, social anthropology, organization studies Experience of carrying out fieldwork in complex organizations Experience of and commitment to ethnographic methods and approaches Commitment to the public engagement with science Web-authoring skills Experience of organizing academic workshops or similar events