- School of Environmental Sciences
- University of East Anglia
- Norwich
- NR4 7TJ
- UK
- +44 (0)
Email: p.simmons“at“uea.ac.uk
The main focus of my research has been the study of understandings of and responses to environmental and technological risk. Several of the cases studied have involved a significant spatial dimension, which has given rise to an interest in the relationships between space/place and the construction of risk. My other main research interest is in participatory environmental and risk decision-making.
I have recently been pursuing these interests through two collaborative research projects, both focused on the nuclear sector. The first, CARL, a comparative study of stakeholder involvement and participatory processes in the field of radioactive waste management, involving partners from Belgium, Finland, Slovenia and Sweden. The second, conducted in collaboration with colleagues at Cardiff University, a mixed-method study of the local experience of living with nuclear hazards and is part of the ESRC Priority Network in Social Context and Risk Response – SCARR.
From 2008–2009 I was also a member of a research network on ‘Conflict management in infrastructure projects’, which was convened as part of the conCISE project. This network focused on the relationship between formal and informal mechanisms in relation to two types of controversial infrastructure project, one of them radioactive waste facilities. The network and associated workshops were funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research.
As a result of my interest in the societal implications of nuclear energy I am currently a member of the Interdisciplinary Cluster on Energy Systems, Equity and Vulnerability , which is funded by the Research Councils’ Energy Programme, and Co-ordinator of the Work Package on Whole System Equity Analysis of New Nuclear Generation Capacity.
My current research focuses in particular on the relationship between technical experts and ‘lay’ publics and stakeholders, as well as the working relationship between researchers from different disciplines. I am currently studying these issues as part of an international project, MoDeRn, funded by the European Commission, which focuses on the monitoring and safety of radioactive waste repositories.
My research into responses to situated risk has led to a growing interest in the area of natural hazards, in particular to the contribution that concepts and approaches developed in the field of technological risk research might make in this context. This has been pursued primarily through a series of PhD research projects. The first, completed in 2009, was a study of local understandings of and responses to volcanic hazards on two Caribbean islands, designed to inform local hazard communication and preparedness strategies. The second, due for submission in 2010, is a situational analysis of flood vulnerability in rural Mexico. A third, due for completion in 2011, takes a multi-disciplinary approach to volcanic risk reduction on the island of Tristan Da Cunha.
External contracts have included work for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management; UK Nirex Ltd; Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council/Medical Research Council.
PhD supervision
Current PhD students
Anna Coulbeck, A multi-disciplinary approach to volcanic risk reduction under conditions of uncertainty: A case study on Tristan da Cunha, jointly supervised with volcanologists Jenni Barclay and Sue Loughlin (BGS).
Frida Guiza Valverde, Local knowledge and community resilience to flooding in rural Mexico: a situational analysis
Recently completed PhD students
Matthew Cotton, Reflective ethical mapping: Deliberative tools for ethical radioactive waste management decision making, 2008.
Sian Crosweller, Perception and communication of volcanic hazards: a comparative study of Dominica and St Vincent, (joint supervisor with Jenni Barclay, and Irene Lorenzoni), 2009.
Alison Harvey, Risky genes, healthy choices: public health as government of the somatic self, 2007.
Teaching
Level 1
First Year Independent Essay (module organiser)
Level 2/3
Risk Assessment and Management (module organiser)
Environmental and Waste Management
Level M
Advances in Risk Management (module organiser)
Challenges of Interdisciplinary Social Science (module organiser)
Qualitative Research Methods
Participatory Environmental Decision Making
Administrative and external responsibilities
Course Director for the MRes in Environmental Social Science.
Senior Academic Adviser, responsible for co-ordinating the student advising system in the School.
Member of the Editorial Board and Book Reviews Editor of the Journal of Risk Research.
Member of the ESRC‘s Post-Doctoral Fellowship College of Assessors.
Selected publications
Journal articles
Latawiec, A., Simmons, P., and Reid B. (2010) Decision-makers’ perspectives on the use of bioaccessibility for risk-based regulation of contaminated land, Environment International, in press.
Latawiec, A. E., Swindell, A. L., Simmons, P. and Reid, B. J. (2010) Bringing Bioavailability Into Contaminated-Land Decision-Making: The Way Forward? Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, in press.
Henwood, K., Pidgeon, N., Parkhill, K., Simmons, P. (2010). Researching Risk: Narrative, Biography, Subjectivity. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 11(1), Art. 20
Parkhill, K., Pidgeon, N., Henwood, K., Venables, D., Simmons, P. (2009) ‘From the familiar to the extraordinary: the ebbs and flows of local residents’ perceptions of risk when living with nuclear power in the UK’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, doi:10.1111/j.1475–5661.2009.00364.x
Bickerstaff, K. and Simmons, P. Bickerstaff, K. and Simmons, P. (2009) Absencing/presencing risk: Rethinking proximity and the experience of living with major technological hazards. Geoforum, 40: 864–872. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2009.07.004
Venables, D. Pidgeon, N., Simmons, P., Henwood, K, Parkhill, K. (2009) ‘Living with nuclear risk: a Q-method study’, Risk Analysis, 29(8): 1089–1104. doi:10.1111/j.1539–6924.2009.01259.x
Henwood, K., Pidgeon, N., Sarre, S., Simmons, P., Smith, N. (2008) ‘Risk, framing and everyday life: Methodological and epistemological reflections from three sociocultural projects’, Health, Risk and Society, 10(5): 421–438. doi:10.1080/1451
Pidgeon, N., Simmons, P., Sarre, S., Henwood, K. and Smith, N. (2008) The ethics of socio-cultural risk research, Health, Risk and Society, 10 (4): 321–329. doi:10.1080/4526
Bickerstaff, K., Simmons, P. and Pidgeon, N. (2008) ‘Constructing responsibilities for risk: negotiating citizen-state relationships’, Environment and Planning A, 40: 1312–1330. doi:10.1068/a39150
Bickerstaff, K., Lorenzoni, I., Pidgeon, N., Poortinga, W. and Simmons, P. (2008) ‘Framing the energy debate in the UK: nuclear power, radioactive waste and climate change mitigation’, Public Understanding of Science, 17: 145–169. doi:10.1177/719
Bickerstaff, K., Simmons, P. and Pidgeon, N. (2006) ‘Situating local experience of risk: peripherality, marginality and place identity in the UK foot and mouth crisis’, Geoforum, Vol. 37, No. 5, pp. 844–858. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.11.004
Bickerstaff, K. and Simmons, P. (2004) ‘The right tool for the job? Modelling, spatial relationships and styles of scientific practice in the UK foot and mouth crisis’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol. 22, pp. 393–412. doi:10.1068/d344t
Simmons, P. (2003) ‘Performing safety in faulty environments’ The Sociological Review Vol. 51, s2, October, pp. 78–93. doi:10.1111/j.1467–954X.2004.00452.x
Simmons, P. and Weldon, S. (2000) ‘The GM food controversy in Britain: actors, arenas and institutional change’, Notizie di Politeia, Vol. 16, No. 60, pp. 53–67.
Simmons, P. and Walker, G. (2000) ‘Contract research as interactive social science’, Science and Public Policy, Vol. 27, No. 3, June, pp. 75–83. doi:10.3152/81995
Simmons, P. and Walker, G. (1999) ‘Tolerating risk: policy principles and public perceptions’, Risk, Decision and Policy, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 179–190. doi:10.1080/41
Walker, G., Simmons, P., Irwin, A. and Wynne, B. (1999) ‘Risk communication, public participation and the Seveso II Directive’, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Vol. 65, pp. 179–190. doi:10.1016/S0304–3894(98)00262–3(98)00262–3
Irwin, A., Simmons, P. and Walker, G. (1999) ‘Faulty environments and risk reasoning: the local understanding of industrial hazards’, Environment and Planning A, Vol. 31, pp. 1311–1326. doi:10.1068/a311311
Book chapters
Pidgeon, N., Simmons, P. and Henwood, K. (2006) ‘Risk, environment and technology’, in P. Taylor-Gooby and J. Zinn (Eds) Risk in Social Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN
Simmons, P. and Bickerstaff, K. (2006) ‘The participatory turn in UK radioactive waste management policy’. In K. Andersson (ed.) Proceedings of VALDOR-2006. (Stockholm: Congrex Sweden, AB), pp. 529–536. ISBN 9163188767
Moore, N., Pidgeon, N., Simmons, P., and Henwood, K. (2005) ‘The use of narrative to explore risk in everyday life’, pp. 33–41 in: N. Kelly, C. Horrocks, K. Milnes, B. Roberts, and D. Robinson (eds) Narrative, Memory and Everyday Life, Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield. ISBN: 186218075X
Irwin, A., Simmons, P. and Walker, G. (2005) ‘Faulty environments and risk reasoning: the local understanding of industrial hazards’. In M. David (Ed) Case Study Research. London/Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. ISBN:
Bergmans, A., Bickerstaff, K., Elam, M., Kos, D., Simmons, P., and Sundqvist, G. (2005) ‘CARL: A social science research project into the effects of stakeholder involvement on decision-making in radioactive waste management’, Paper ICEM ’05–1186 in Proceedings of ICEM 05: 10th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, Glasgow, September 2005. Washington: ASME. pp. 960–970.
Simmons, P. and Walker, G. (2004) ‘Living with technological risk: industrial encroachment on sense of place’. In Å. Boholm and R. Löfstedt (Eds) Facility Siting: Risk, Power and Identity in Land-use Planning. London: Earthscan, pp. 90–106. ISBN:
Simmons, P. (2003) ‘Performing safety in faulty environments’. In B. Szerszynski, C. Waterton and W. Heim (Eds) Nature Performed. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 79–93. ISBN:
Wynne, B. and Simmons, P., with Waterton, C., Hughes, P. and Shackley, S. (2001) ‘Institutional cultures and the management of global environmental risks in the UK’. In The Social Learning Group Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks: A Comparative History of Social Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion and Acid Rain. Volume 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 93–113. ISBN-13:
Reports
Bergmans, A., Elam, M., Kos, D., Polič, M., Simmons, P., Sundqvist, G., Walls, J. (2008) Wanting the Unwanted: Effects of public and stakeholder involvement in the long-term management of radioactive waste and the siting of repository facilities. Final Report CARL project
Simmons, P., Bickerstaff, K. and Walls, J. (2007) Country Report – United Kingdom. Report to CARL Project on Stakeholder Involvement in Radioactive Waste Management.
Burgess, J., Chilvers, J., Clark, J., Dyball, M., King, S. & Simmons, P. (2005) Results of the Low Level Waste Management Policy Review Stakeholder Workshop held on 6 October 2005, Report to Defra.
Burgess, J., Chilvers, J., Clark, J., Dyball, M., King, S. & Simmons, P. (2005) Results of the Low Level Waste Management Policy Review Stakeholder Workshop held on 21–22 April 2005, Report to Defra.
Burgess, J., Chilvers, J., Clark, J., Day, R., Hunt, J. King, S., Simmons, P. & Stirling, A. (2004) Citizens and specialists deliberate options for managing the UK’s legacy intermediate and high level radio-active waste: a report of the Deliberative Mapping Trial, June-July 2004, Report to CoRWM, 29 July 2004.
Stirling, A., Simmons, P. and Spash, C. (2003) Approaches to the Mapping of Values: A Review of Q-Methodology, Multi-Criteria Mapping and Attitudinal Scales, CIVICS Thematic Network Report, The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen
Marris, C., Wynne, B., Simmons, P. and Weldon, S. (2001) Public Perceptions of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Europe (PABE), Final Report, funded by the Commission of the European Communities, Contract number: FAIR CT98–3844 (DG12 – SSMI), December 2001 (With contribution. from: J. Cárceres, B. De Marchi, A. Klinke, L. Lemkow, L. Pellizzoni, U. Pfenning, O. Renn and R. Sentmartí).
Hunt, J. and Simmons, P. (2001) The Front of the Front End: Mapping public concerns about radioactive waste management issues. Report to UK Nirex, Lancaster: CSEC, Lancaster University. March 2001.