"(T)o say that the individual is culturally constituted has become a truism. . . . We assume, almost without question, that a self belongs to a specific cultural world much as it speaks a native language." James Clifford

Thursday, September 9, 2010

A Structural Conflict of Interest inside BP

Mark Bly, BP’s head of safety and operations, released an internal report on September 7, 2010 blaming not only the company, but also its partners for the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill. A spokesman at Transocean quickly lashed out, calling it a “self-serving report” that minimized what was critical: BP’s “fatally flawed” well design.[1] Behind the self-serving aspect was a larger conflict of interest—one premised on the structure of two functions: an “objective” investigation and efforts to minimize legal damages.


The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interestavailable at Amazon.


1. NBC News, "Transocean: BP Probe 'Self-Serving' and Misleading," September 8, 2010.