Hacker, M E; Kaminsky, J; Faust, K M and Rauch, S (2020) Regulatory enforcement approaches for mass population displacement. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 146(5): 1820, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
During the European Refugee Situation in 2015, Sweden received an influx of forcibly displaced persons seeking asylum, the highest number of asylum seekers per capita among European Union member states. A challenge existed in providing accommodations within the Swedish built environment, in contrast to other housing solutions such as geographically distinct refugee camps. Regulations are one method of maintaining consistent standards of buildings, but they are effective only if they are enforced. During uncertainty, compliance decisions can be based on cognitive understanding (cognitive legitimacy). Otherwise, deterrence-based regulation is rooted in direct consequences (pragmatic legitimacy), and responsive regulation relies on normative motivation (moral legitimacy) for compliance. This study explored the normative aspect of regulatory enforcement through inspections. In 2017, 34 semistructured interviews were conducted with individuals involved with providing temporary accommodations in Sweden during 2015-2016. From these, six interviews with employees of regulatory enforcement agencies were qualitatively analyzed to discover how regulators legitimized. Findings show that regulators justified their inspections predominantly based on what is considered as a socially acceptable approach (procedural legitimacy) and what is understandable based on their personal experience (comprehensibility legitimacy). This study provides practical insight to regulators regarding the benefits for using responsive regulation during institutional responses to mass population displacement in urban communities. Findings will assist in ensuring that the quality of buildings is consistent for the general population and reduces variation in the safety provided by buildings. Additionally, this analysis contributes to the literature addressing mass population displacement and provides new knowledge of organizational legitimacy in technical applications.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building regulations; deterrence; enforcement; legitimacy; refugee; responsive |
| Index terms: | refugee, built environment, enforcement, building regulation, European Union, inspection, regulator, Sweden, population, variation, regulation, agency, legitimacy, housing, interview, compliance, urban community, motivation |
| Subjects: | community and social dimensions, construction type, data collection methods, psychology, health safety and environment, contractual condition, Geography, physical geography and landforms, political science, quality assurance, infrastructure and transport systems, regulatory law, sociology, demography |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Quality Management, Legal Issues, Urban Studies, Organizational Design, Contract Administration, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Construction Technology, Governance, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here