"Seabirds matter more than us!": understanding the complex exercise of CSR in the global shipping industry

Within the contemporary shipping industry there is the potential for open registers to act to varying degrees as “regulatory havens”. There are also well-known challenges relating to regulatory enforcement at both port-state and flag-state levels. In this context it is particularly helpful to consider the potential drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the commercial cargo shipping industry. This paper therefore considers three case studies, to explore: supply chain pressures relating to the exercise of CSR; financial drivers of CSR; the role of paternalism in the exercise of CSR; and normative orientations towards CSR in the shipping industry. The paper concludes that on the whole, the shipping industry is more concerned to focus on the protection of the environment, in conjunction with its CSR policies, than it is to focus on the health and welfare of sea-based employees. Furthermore, it explains the reasons for such prioritization

'Fluid fields' and the dynamics of risk in social research

In recent decades social scientists have expanded their understanding of risk in the field to extend from concern with participants to awareness of how researchers themselves may be exposed to a variety of physical, emotional, ethical and professional ‘dangers’. A variety of accounts have exposed the kinds of risks concerned with fieldwork, many of which are difficult to anticipate. However, this paper takes a further step forward in considering the ways in which risks combine in the field, the coalescence of risk in particular circumstances, and the ways in which risk should be understood as dynamic and unpredictable. The paper concludes that these considerations require researchers to take a leading role in assessing the risks that they face, that risks should not be considered as uniform for all team members in conjunction with projects involving multiple researchers, and that researchers should receive greater training on appropriate risk management in an effort to change the prevailing research culture in many institutions

Turning on the tap: the benefits of using 'real-life' vignettes in qualitative research interviews

The use of vignettes that are based upon fictionalised accounts is well-established in contemporary social science. Vignettes have been used in a variety of ways to contribute to studies with both a quantitative and a qualitative orientation. This paper reflects on two recent qualitative studies which have made innovative use of ‘real-life’ vignettes. In each case, the paper describes some of the unanticipated and overlapping benefits that accrued from their incorporation into the research design and reflects on the advantages that ‘real-life’ vignettes might bring to future research. Drawing on two different research projects, the paper highlights the further potential contribution of ‘real-life’ vignettes to the repertoire of research methods currently available to social scientists

The World of the Seafarer

This open access book constitutes an ethnographic mosaic which depicts the contextual complexities of the life and work of seafarers who are employed in the international merchant cargo fleet. The collection is based upon the observations and interviews of researchers in multiple disciplines. It is woven together to offer a richly detailed insight into the ways in which a complex global industry operates internationally. The book covers issues to do with career decisions and recruitment, gender, life and work on board multinational vessels, health and safety issues, the regulation of the industry, shipboard roles and role conflict, and the representation of workers. It will be of considerable interest to all students globally who are studying for professional seafaring qualifications, to graduate students studying for masters courses in ship and port management, and to welfare professionals and policy makers. It is of special interest to those connected to the shipping industry who specialize in issues relating to 'the human element' and will serve as a paradigm defining text in this area

The World of the Seafarer

This open access book constitutes an ethnographic mosaic which depicts the contextual complexities of the life and work of seafarers who are employed in the international merchant cargo fleet. The collection is based upon the observations and interviews of researchers in multiple disciplines. It is woven together to offer a richly detailed insight into the ways in which a complex global industry operates internationally. The book covers issues to do with career decisions and recruitment, gender, life and work on board multinational vessels, health and safety issues, the regulation of the industry, shipboard roles and role conflict, and the representation of workers. It will be of considerable interest to all students globally who are studying for professional seafaring qualifications, to graduate students studying for masters courses in ship and port management, and to welfare professionals and policy makers. It is of special interest to those connected to the shipping industry who specialize in issues relating to 'the human element' and will serve as a paradigm defining text in this area

Powerful unions, vulnerable workers: the representation of seafarers in the global labour market

In the late twentieth century, the labour market for seafarers, which had always been international to some extent, became increasingly organised on a global basis. Shipping companies who had previously registered their vessels with their home State and were bound by national legislation with regard to wages and labour conditions began to have the option of registering their vessels with open registers (so called ‘flags of convenience’). As a result of this related ‘de-regulation’ they went in search of cheap labour sources. Such labour market changes (particularly when combined with a move by many owners to contract the daily running of their vessels out to crew management companies) have resulted in the development of a plethora of crewing agents across the world, from Croatia to the Philippines and beyond. Today, approximately 20% of the world’s seafarers (employed in the deep-sea fleet) are Filipino, and over sixty per cent are employed aboard vessels with mixed nationality crews. Substantial numbers of seafarers from all over the world are engaged on temporary, fixed-term contracts, often at low wage rates. Seafarers’ conditions at sea vary enormously and ILO conventions (e.g. ILO 147) designed to protect minimum living standards aboard ship are ratified by few countries and largely ignored by Port State Control inspectors worldwide. The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) (and many of its national affiliated trade unions) is both feared and vilified by many shipowners because of the power it wields. The ITF has enjoyed considerable success in negotiating wages and enforcing wage agreements aboard a variety of vessels. Nevertheless, many seafarers continue to work and live aboard substandard ships. They enjoy increasingly rare opportunities to go ashore in the course of their contracts. They have little job security and work long hours, often seven days a week. This paper will argue that this situation arises as a direct consequence of the globalisation of the seafarer labour market, and of the industry as a whole. It will outline the living and working conditions of multinational crews of seafarers and will describe the barriers to their effective collective action aboard ships. In doing so, the paper will draw on data collected in the course of five ethnographic voyages conducted by the author, over a period of 118 days at sea, as well as an extended period of fieldwork conducted in India with seafarers and their families

‘Beyond the State’: The limits of international regulation and the example of abandoned seafarers

This paper contributes to debates about the effectiveness of international regulation and the place of ‘the state’ in developing and enforcing effective international shipping regulation. It focuses on the example of the Maritime Labour Convention (2006) to highlight some of the challenges and successes of international regulation in defending the rights of workers to ‘decent work’. The empirical basis of the paper is a novel analysis of abandonment data which allows for the consideration of the resolution of abandonment cases pre-and-post-MLC. This is the first time that such objective analysis has been used to evaluate the efficacy of MLC. The paper describes the regulatory framework which offers protections to seafarers in such circumstances and the ways in which internationally agreed regulations at the ILO are enforced. It describes the data and analyses the effectiveness of the MLC, in increasing the speed with which abandoned seafarers are repatriated. It discusses the implications of the findings and draws conclusions, relating these to broader discussions of the limits and importance of international regulation