Overview
I am a research fellow at the Sustainable Places Research Institute. I am interested in formal methods of risk and decision analysis, causal mechanisms and their relationship to context, and the use of scientific evidence in public policy-making.
Biography
I am a research fellow at the Sustainable Places Research Institute. I was previously a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, after spells at Delft University of Technology and Lancaster University. My education is in Risk Management (PhD, Cranfield University, 2007), Environmental Science (MSc, Strathclyde University, 2003), and Geography (BSc, Glasgow University, 2001)
Publications
2021
- MacGillivray, B. H. 2021. Handling uncertainty in models of seismic and postseismic hazards: toward robust methods and resilient societies. Risk Analysis 41(9), pp. 1499-1512. (10.1111/risa.13663)
2020
- Ran, J., MacGillivray, B., Gong, Y. and Hales, T. 2020. The application of frameworks for measuring social vulnerability and resilience to geophysical hazards within developing countries: A systematic review and narrative synthesis. Science of the Total Environment 711, article number: 134486. (10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134486)
2019
- MacGillivray, B. H. 2019. Null hypothesis testing ≠ scientific inference: a critique of the shaky premise at the heart of the science and values debate, and a defense of value‐neutral risk assessment. Risk Analysis 39(7), pp. 1520-1532. (10.1111/risa.13284)
- Tan, T., Siri, G., Gong, Y., Ong, B., Lim, C., MacGillivray, B. and Marsden, T. 2019. Systems approaches for localising the SDGs: co-production of place-based case studies. Globalization and Health 15, article number: 85. (10.1186/s12992-019-0527-1)
2018
- MacGillivray, B. 2018. Beyond social capital: the norms, belief systems, and agency embedded in social networks shape resilience to climatic and geophysical hazards. Environmental Science and Policy 89, pp. 116-125. (10.1016/j.envsci.2018.07.014)
- MacGillivray, B. H. and Pidgeon, N. F. 2018. Risk and rationality: the “frame problem” revisited, from the laboratory to the public sphere. In: Marsden, T. K. ed. The SAGE Handbook of Nature. SAGE
- Cere, G., Zhao, W., Rezgui, Y., Parker, R., Hales, T., MacGillivray, B. H. and Gong, Y. 2018. Multi-objective consideration of earthquake resilience in the built environment: The case of Wenchuan earthquake. Presented at: International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC), Funchal, Portugal, 27-29 Jun 2017Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC), 2017 International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation. IEEE pp. 513-520., (10.1109/ICE.2017.8279929)
2017
- MacGillivray, B. 2017. Characterising bias in regulatory risk and decision analysis: An analysis of heuristics applied in health technology appraisal, chemicals regulation, and climate change governance. Environment International 105, pp. 20-33. (10.1016/j.envint.2017.05.002)
- Cherry, C., Hopfe, C., MacGillivray, B. H. and Pidgeon, N. F. 2017. Homes as machines: Exploring expert and public imaginaries of low carbon housing futures in the United Kingdom. Energy Research and Social Science 23, pp. 36-45. (10.1016/j.erss.2016.10.011)
- Cere, G., Zhao, W., Rezgui, Y., Parker, R., Hales, T., MacGillivray, B. and Gong, Y. 2017. Multi-objective consideration of earthquake resilience in the built environment: the case of Wenchuan earthquake. Presented at: 2017 International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC), Madeira, Portugal, 26-30 June 2017.
2015
- MacGillivray, B. H. and Franklin, A. 2015. Place as a boundary device for the sustainability sciences: concepts of place, their value in characterising sustainability problems, and their role in fostering integrative research and action. Environmental Science and Policy 53(A), pp. 1-7. (10.1016/j.envsci.2015.06.021)
- MacGillivray, B. H. 2015. The position of place in governing global problems: a mechanistic account of place-as-context, and analysis of transitions towards spatially explicit approaches to climate science and policy. Environmental Science and Policy 53(A), pp. 8-17. (10.1016/j.envsci.2015.05.015)
- MacGillivray, B. H. and Richards, K. 2015. Approaches to evaluating model quality across different regime types in environmental and public health governance. Global Environmental Change 33, pp. 23-31. (10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.04.002)
- Cherry, C., Hopfe, C., MacGillivray, B. H. and Pidgeon, N. F. 2015. Media discourses of low carbon housing: The marginalisation of social and behavioural dimensions within the British broadsheet press. Public Understanding of Science 24(3), pp. 302-310. (10.1177/0963662513512442)
2014
- MacGillivray, B. H. 2014. Fast and frugal crisis management: an analysis of rule-based judgment and choice during water contamination events. Journal of Business Research 67(8), pp. 1717-1724. (10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.02.018)
- MacGillivray, B. H. 2014. Heuristics structure and pervade formal risk assessment. Risk Analysis 34(4), pp. 771-787. (10.1111/risa.12136)
2012
- Busby, J. . S., Alcock, R. . E. and MacGillivray, B. H. 2012. Types of risk transformation: a case study. Journal of Risk Research 15(1), pp. 67-84. (10.1080/13669877.2011.601324)
2011
- MacGillivray, B. H., Alcock, R. E. and Busby, J. 2011. Is risk-based regulation feasible? The case of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Risk Analysis 31(2), pp. 266-281. (10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01500.x)
- Alcock, R. E., MacGillivray, B. H. and Busby, J. S. 2011. Understanding the mismatch between the demands of risk assessment and practice of scientists — The case of Deca-BDE. Environment International 37(1), pp. 216-225. (10.1016/j.envint.2010.06.002)
- MacGillivray, B. and Pidgeon, N. F. 2011. Humility needed in decision-making (correspondence). Nature 475, pp. 455. (10.1038/475455c)
- MacGillivray, B. 2011. Global governance of hazardous chemicals: Challenges of multilevel management, Selin Henrik. MIT Press, Massachusetts [book review]. Environment International 37(3), pp. 654-655.
2009
- Busby, J. . S. ., Alcock, R. . E. and MacGillivray, B. H. 2009. Interrupting the social amplification of risk process: A case study in collective emissions reduction. Environmental Science and Policy 12(3), pp. 297-308. (10.1016/j.envsci.2008.12.001)
- MacGillivray, B. H. 2009. Sociological and psychological constraints to learning from failure. In: Gray, J. and Thompson, K. C. eds. Water Contamination Emergencies: Collective Responsibility. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing, pp. 389-396., (10.1039/9781847559319-00389)
2008
- MacGillivray, B. H. and Pollard, S. J. T. 2008. What can water utilities do to improve risk management within their business functions? An improved tool and application of process benchmarking. Environment International 34(8), pp. 1120-1131. (10.1016/j.envint.2008.04.004)
- MacGillivray, B. H., Alcock, R. and Busby, J. 2008. The unintended consequences of risk regulation. In: Martorell, S., Soares, C. and Barnett, J. eds. Safety, Reliability and Risk Analysis: Theory, Methods and Applications. CRC Press, pp. 415-419.
2007
- MacGillivray, B., Sharp, J. V., Strutt, J. E., Hamilton, P. D. and Pollard, S. J. T. 2007. Benchmarking Risk Management Within the International Water Utility Sector. Part I: Design of a Capability Maturity Methodology. Journal of Risk Research 10(1), pp. 85-104. (10.1080/13669870601011183)
- MacGillivray, B., Sharp, J. V., Strutt, J. E., Hamilton, P. D. and Pollard, S. J. T. 2007. Benchmarking risk management within the international water utility sector. Part II: A survey of eight water utilities. Journal of Risk Research 10(1), pp. 105-123. (10.1080/13669870601011191)
2006
- MacGillivray, B., Hamilton, P. D., Strutt, J. E. and Pollard, S. J. T. 2006. Risk analysis strategies in the water utility sector: An inventory of applications for better and more credible decision making. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 36(2), pp. 85-139. (10.1080/10643380500531171)
2005
- Davidson, C. M., Gibson, M. D., Hamilton, E., MacGillivray, B., Reglinski, J. and Rezabal, E. 2005. The long-term environmental behaviour of strontium and barium released from former mine workings in the granites of the Sunart region of Scotland, UK. Chemosphere 58(6), pp. 793-798. (10.1016/j.chemosphere.2004.08.101)
2004
- Pollard, S. J. T., Strutt, J. E., MacGillivray, B., Hamilton, P. D. and Hrudey, S. E. 2004. Risk analysis and management in the water utility sector: A review of drivers, tools and techniques. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 82(6), pp. 453-462.
Most of my work looks at methodological and philosophical aspects of formal modelling in environmental and public health contexts. I am particularly interested in causal knowledge - how it is acquired, how it is incorporated within formal models, and in the difficulties faced in using this sort of knowledge to predict the results of policy interventions. I am also interested in techniques of risk and decision analysis, and in particular the rules of inference and choice that structure and pervade these methods, and how these shape regulatory outcomes. Finally, I am trying to characterize the factors that shape the uptake or neglect of scientific knowledge in public policy, and how these relate to regime types.