Paul Priest

1. Keywords

Regulatory Lawscape, International Development, Environment Social and Governance (ESG), Development Ethics, RIBA Code of Conduct

2. Non-technical Summary

      This research by project investigates mandated responsibility of international modern slavery governance to a revised standard of conduct for RIBA chartered architects. Forensic analysis will disentangle regulatory ecosystems across jurisdictions and countries through mapping to spatialise legal territory and reveal policy and process. In making visible the complexity of a seemingly straightforward requirement, it will define an obscure and evolving lawscape to inform procedures necessary for ethical decision-making and thus empower architects in protecting the rights of the individual.

3. Research Proposal

      Underpinning Ideas
      This research addresses the dual pressures of upholding the integrity of the professional standards of RIBA chartered practice and advancing social responsibility in construction. It explores the impact of regulatory change on the architect’s duty of care by defining the standards of conduct required for compliance across a global lawscape. Despite a prevalence of international regulation, the endemic nature of modern slavery suggests these initiatives remain ineffective in practice. This ecosystem ranges from hard to soft, global and local, human rights, labour rights, social and economic governance. Further, the architect must practice within and against frameworks of deliberate deregulation, jurisdictional complexity and permissive governments. Despite demands for reform, the profession is deficient in resilient practical solutions. Consequently, members are underequipped to navigate the complex and often vague obligations of social policy and so remain powerless in protecting the rights of the individual.

      Aims
       The project will suggest a shift is required in the ethical culture and procedural patterns of industry if social change is to be achieved. In making visible the complexity of a seemingly straightforward requirement, it will define an obscure and evolving lawscape to inform procedures necessary for ethical decision-making and accountability. It will explore whether increased transparency, driven by the disclosure of due diligence in identifying and discharging obligations of a rights-based approach to construction, could act as an instrument for reform through behavioural change and self-regulation.

      Significance
      The 2019 revision of the Code of Professional Conduct will have significant repercussions for many of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 42,000 members, particularly those delivering work overseas. With 38% of chartered practice’s international revenue coming from the Middle East, the significance of this market combined with concerns over the social and environmental impacts of its rapid growth, provide grounds to select Dubai as the location of this research.
      These issues, however, also concern the UK. Architectural workers union UVW-SAW claim the prevalence of exploitation of the young, discrimination and unpaid obligatory overtime, and an Architect’s Journal survey reports that mental health issues now affect one-third of British architects.
      Finally, this research also has potential for the application of its methodologies and data across subject and discipline to equally critical global issues, such as our climate emergency, to facilitate alignment and build capacity.

      Originality
      This is the first study that attempts to map the lawscape surrounding modern slavery regulation and its implication for the built environment disciplines. Its original contribution is grounded in a primary dataset formed of a professional survey which will, for the first time, map the baseline of knowledge around this portion of the Code of Professional Conduct among active RIBA members and produce a digital archive through empirically grounded research of modern slavery in architecture.

4. Research Design and Methodology

      The complex and evolving ecosystem of regulatory governance presents a unique opportunity to engage with and systematically examine the real-world challenges of a built environment political economy.
      The research design approach, therefore, is by project and is practice-led by its application of the scientist-practitioner model. Located at the intersection of policy and process, it is interdisciplinary and unites industry with academia. Within a controlled scholarly environment, I will conduct due diligence as I would in practice using a rights-based approach to create a digital archive that will identify and define procedures necessary for discharging modern slavery obligations.
      Built on solid ontological and epistemological theory, it will apply principles of corporate governance, institutional behaviour change, development ethics and policy coherence. These themes drawn from the profession itself, have become central in the debate of how international projects and social governance are to coexist for the RIBA chartered architect. The project will move across scale and jurisdiction, from professional governance in the UK to professional practice in the UAE and in doing so, reveal individual mechanisms and gaps in governance.

5. Research Questions

1. How can RIBA chartered architects uphold their Code of Professional Conduct across extraterritorial jurisdictions, to comply with all applicable legislation concerning modern slavery?
1a. What is the existing level of skill and care of the reasonably competent member of the RIBA in the identification and discharge of these obligations?
1b. What are the requirements for compliance with all applicable modern slavery legislation for the RIBA chartered architect delivering projects in Dubai?
1c. What might experimental and cross-sectoral methods of visual representation offer to the understanding of complexity within the demands of the institutional Code of Professional Conduct for modern slavery?