When you read safety texts, so called ‘gurus’, safety curriculum and propaganda, one is confronted by the idea that the purpose of living is safety. Such a worldview/paradigm is a philosophy, a way of seeing the world. The purpose and meaning of living and being in the world is not safety. How … [Read more...] about Safety Philosophy as a Reality Distortion Field
Fallibility Denial as a Safety Psychosis
It is fascinating to read Reason’s book on Human Error where ‘fallibility’ is mentioned eleven times. Yet, when Safety wants to discuss its obsession with blame and cause, and when Reason is quoted, there is no mention of fallibility. Reason never defines fallibility nor has any discussion on … [Read more...] about Fallibility Denial as a Safety Psychosis
How Will Your Safety Propaganda Stand Up In Court?
It’s rare to see anything of much value on Linkedin but this gem from David Borys captured my attention: I have been brushing up on the Victorian (Australia) Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations, along with Worksafe Victoria’s Compliance Codes. It struck me that none of these … [Read more...] about How Will Your Safety Propaganda Stand Up In Court?
Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk
Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk One of the most important concepts discussed by Feyerbend, Laktos, MacIntyre and Kuhn is that of incommensurability. Incommensurability refers to incongruence and misunderstanding between linguistic structures. What this means is that disciplines are limited … [Read more...] about Incommensurability and Discourse in Risk
Epistemic Trespassing and Safety
It is tempting to venture outside one’s field in expertise and experience. Ballantyne discusses this in his work on what he calls ‘Epistemic Trespassing’. I see this often in the safety industry in three key areas: ethics, culture and linguistics. Please note, this is not just a discussion on … [Read more...] about Epistemic Trespassing and Safety
Why Personify Safety?
Why Personify Safety? I spoke at a conference last week and had the unfortunate experience of following a presentation by a regulator. When will safety people get sick and tired of being bombarded with statistics, injury rates, graphs and charts? I have no idea why safety people would want to hear … [Read more...] about Why Personify Safety?
Weick’s Poetics
Weick uses three poems in critical positions in his book The Social Psychology of Risk (https://archive.org/details/socialpsychology0000weic_2nded), including his opening grook (https://safetyrisk.net/weicks-grook-and-the-authority-power-myth/). Understanding Poetics (all that is un-measurable) … [Read more...] about Weick’s Poetics
Is Weick Loopy?
In the last of this series on Prof. Karl E. Weick we present his thinking on causal loop thinking. All in preparation for those who are joining us on the free workshop series on Weick and HROing in June: https://safetyrisk.net/free-workshops-june-weick-and-hroing/ You can register for a place … [Read more...] about Is Weick Loopy?
Inter-connectivity, Inter-affectivity and Inter-corporeality in Weick
Weick was years ahead of the game when it comes to a discussion of organising. What he discussed would be later articulated by Fuchs (Intercorporeality and Interaffectivity) in the nature of the embodiment of organising. Again, Weick was years ahead in his thinking about organising and risk. He … [Read more...] about Inter-connectivity, Inter-affectivity and Inter-corporeality in Weick
The Binary Barnacle
The Binary Barnacle Binary Opposition and the logic of safety “How many people do you want to injure today…..?” A barnacle is marine crustacean that attaches itself permanently to something else. It can be cut off but its attachment is so fused into the object that it damages the host in … [Read more...] about The Binary Barnacle