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Merging together different fields of study to create a single analytical framework can be a difficult, yet ultimately rewarding, task for a researcher. The process can prove beneficial if new analytical lenses illuminate novel findings across well-established areas of study and stimulate interest and debate across disciplines and paradigms. Yet, conceptualising and operationalising a research design from many different fields and applying multiple analytical prisms and lenses can direct attention away from the stated objectives of a project. The end product is likely to confuse readers who do not have all the unique research experience of the author, leading to the question: who is the research for? Gordon Gow's Policymaking for Critical Infrastructure highlights these advantages and disadvantages in almost equal measure.

Gow's work examines literatures from disaster management, public policymaking, technology studies and critical infrastructure in order to develop an analytical framework capable of exploring the technical and social factors that affect the development of a large technical system. The analytical framework is then applied to a detailed case study of the development of Wireless E9-1-1, a wireless emergency telephone service implemented in Canada. The development of this framework is a worthwhile contribution to the study of critical infrastructure because it stresses the importance of social-constructivism as a tool for understanding growth and change in infrastructure technologies. The constructivist turn is displayed in Gow's use of Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) - an approach that emphasises how technologies develop through the interaction of interested parties - alongside science and technology approaches and telecom literature. The importance of the constructivist perspective is that it recognises that infrastructure develops as a socio-technical entity, rather than merely as a technical artefact. Gow argues that the inclusion of social and technical perspectives allows novel insights to be created for policy makers in terms of the intervention strategies required to avoid developmental problems in infrastructure design and implementation. Indeed, the author believes that the framework 'is a much needed bridge between a growing body of scholarly research in science and technology studies and, the practical and pressing concerns of policy-makers working in disaster mitigation and critical infrastructure protection' (p. xiii). This aim is laudable because, as Gow correctly states, understanding socio-technical growth and change in large technical systems can also help enhance our understanding of the root causes and dynamic pressures within systems that translate into unsafe conditions (cf. Blaikie et al., 1994).

These conjoined objectives - understanding technological growth and understanding how to mitigate vulnerabilities - are ambitious and have the potential to appeal to a wide audience. However, the primary criticism of this book is that this potential remains unfulfilled. The gap between science and technology studies and studies of those working in disaster mitigation and critical infrastructure remains largely unbridged because of an overemphasis on the first objective. There should be no mistake: this a telecommunication study, rooted in science and technology literature first and foremost. It is likely to appeal to those with a specific interest in public safety telecommunications or a more general concern with the technological development of critical national infrastructures. In these specific ways, the book can be considered as a complementary addition to the rubric of crisis and contingencies management, but its technical nature means that it tends to engage more with literatures that will not necessarily appeal throughout to students of mainstream policy analysis or crisis/disaster management.

The introductory chapter of the book shows the possibilities of inter-disciplinary research. Researchers with little knowledge of science and technology studies such as crisis and disaster management students, policy analysts and those interested in the development of critical infrastructures, are likely to have their interests aroused by chapter one. For example, Gow's conceptual discussion of mitigation; his critique of the phase model of emergency management in the context of analysing mitigation in infrastructure; and, his argument that Blaikie et al.'s (1994) Pressure Release Model represents a more suitable starting point for researching mitigation are all commendably sharp. There is little to disagree with in the first chapter. Although those who study disaster or crisis management will be familiar with many of Gow's criticisms of the phase or stagist model, it is interesting and worthwhile nevertheless to read an assessment of the model's utility in a new context. It is clear, even in these early sections, however, that Gow is not well versed in crisis or disaster literature. He discusses many issues, such as the growth in interdependency and complexity increasing risks; the movement from response orientated definitions of mitigation to one that takes into account the long-term incubation of vulnerability; the artificial nature of the phase model's classifications; and, the historical perception of disasters as social phenomena, which have already been raised within crisis management research, yet appears unaware of the existence of some pieces of research (for example, Sorokin, 1942; Turner, 1978; Perrow, 1999; Mitroff et al., 2004) which could strengthen his arguments.

As the analytical framework unfolds in the theoretical and methodological chapters of the book, readers unversed in technology studies are exposed to layer after layer of theory, models and perspectives drawn almost exclusively from science and technology studies. There is no doubt that the analytical framework is well defined, logical and capable of analysing socio-technical development (see below). However, the value in giving such lengthy and detailed consideration to the conceptual development of the framework comes at the expense of maintaining the interest of academics and practitioners beyond Gow's own field. A slightly more parsimonious approach in terms of literature use would have provided a more rewarding read for such readers. It gradually becomes apparent, after the first three chapters, that the book's primary concern is with managing technological growth and change rather than mitigating the root causes of unsafe conditions.

The empirical work in chapters four to six is well researched, detailed and offers a valuable insight into the development of an important emergency telecommunications service. In these chapters, the analytical framework, despite its detailed underpinning, is used effectively to highlight the causes of problems at the design stage of the wireless system and to suggest the ways in which intervention strategies can affect the development of infrastructure. In this sense, the framework proves itself 'fit for purpose' but again the focus of the research is not as inclusive as the book's introductory elements lead the reader to believe. The book is too focused on the analysis of growth and change at the expense of more detailed findings for policymakers in terms of the linkages between root causes, dynamic pressures and specific vulnerabilities. For this reason, the book is likely to be only of tangential interest to those looking to engage with mainstream crisis and contingencies management perspectives. Although the book does make a unique and specific contribution to that field, its technical character means that is something of a 'stand-alone' study which should be sited at the margins of the crisis management paradigm rather than at its centre. This research will undoubtedly be received well by students and practitioners on Gow's side of the analytical bridge - those with an interest in the design and implementation of technological systems. It is less certain that those on the other side - disaster and crisis management students and non-technological policymakers - will find this book of significant interest.

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