Risky Work Environments

Risky Work Environments provides new insights into the multiple and dynamic trajectories of both near misses and mistakes in complex work environments, based on actual case examples. It also studies the interactions between various activity systems or work practices (design, maintenance, incident investigation, regulation, operation) and their consequences for operational performance. The role of rules and regulations is explored, considering the consequences of deviations and the limitations of enforced compliance. Further, the book explains how to search for, think about and act on information about vulnerability, near misses and mistakes in a way that emphasizes accountability in ways that are not punitive but instead responsible, innovative and provide opportunities for learning. Writing from different disciplines and theoretical perspectives, the contributors analyse working in risky environments which include air traffic control, offshore mining, chemical plants, neo-natal intensive care units, ship piloting and emergency call dispatch centres. In each chapter the authors present rich empirical data and their analyses illustrate a variety of ways in which, despite imperfect systems, safety and resilience is created in human action. In the chapters where the focus is on error or mistakes, the analysis undertaken reveals the logic of actions undertaken at the time as well as their constraints. The contributors are all active researchers within their disciplines and come from Australia, Finland, France, Norway and the Netherlands. The book will be of direct interest to safety scientists, researchers and scientists, as well as human factors practitioners working in complex technological systems.

Christine Owen is a senior researcher investigating communication, coordination and collaborative practices in high-technology, high-intensity, high-reliability environments. She is conducting research in aviation, and emergency medicine and emergency management environments. She has a particular interest in theories of activity and how learningful and developmental work environments may be enabled. She is currently Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania, Australia and national research program leader for Education, Training and Communication in the Australasian Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. Pascal Béguin is Director of Research at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). He has conducted researches in engineering companies, aviation, chemical industry and medicine (oncology). Pascal Béguin represents the French tradition of interventionist studies of design in work settings. He has a longstanding interest and experience in transformative approaches to participatory approaches in design. He has published extensively on the notion of instrumental genesis and its implications for the organization of design processes. Ger Wackers is assistant professor at the Department of Technology and Society Studies, Faculty of Arts and Culture, University of Maastricht. He was originally trained as a medical laboratory technician as a medical doctor. Subsequently he moved into science and technology studies. He holds a PhD in STS. He currently works on a research project on the vulnerability and reliability of complex technological systems, particularly in the offshore industry in the North Sea. He has an interest in transdisciplinary approaches in STS-research and has been writing with engineers on issues of reliability of complex technological systems.

Contents: Introduction: shifting the focus to human work within complex socio-technical systems, Pascal Béguin, Christine Owen and Ger Wackers; Part I Identifying System Vulnerabilities within Incident and Accident Analysis: Learning from accidents: analysis of normal practices, Lenna Norros and Maaria Nuutinen; Derailed decisions: the evolution of vulnerability on a Norwegian railway line, Ragnar Rosness; Offshore vulnerability: the limits of design and the ubiquity of recursive process, Ger Wackers. Part II Accomplishing Reliability within Fallible Systems: Channelling erratic flows of action: life in the neonatal intensive care unit, Jessica Mesman; How do individual operators contribute to the reliability of collective activity? A French medical emergency centre, Jacques Marc and Janine Rogalski. Part III Enhancing Work Practices Within Risky Environments: When users and designers meet each other in the design process, Pascal Béguin; Near misses and mistakes in risky-work: an exploration of work practices in high-3 environments, Christine Owen; Conclusion: towards developmental work within complex and fallible systems, Christine Owen; Index.