Did anyone ever tell you caring is ‘hard work’? It’s tough when you care about and for someone, but have no power to express it, enact it or offer it. You can even care for someone’s safety but if they don’t want your care, there’s very little you can do about it. In some ways this is similar to the … [Read more...] about Being Care-ful in Safety?
Ethics
ASSP – The Ethics Amateurs
You have to laugh at the ASSP or you would be overcome with sadness, at just how pathetic and amateurish it is when it comes to Ethics. A recent article ‘Applying Ethics to safety Practice’ is an example. As a start, it is essential in the ASSP to use sources with no expertise in Ethics to review … [Read more...] about ASSP – The Ethics Amateurs
Poetics and Risk Part IV; Poetics, Ethics and Risk
Ethical in signs and symbols and slogans Do your organisations signs symbols and slogans unintentionally push you to an extremist position? Mottos, policies, memes and slogans are not ethically neutral. What are the ethics and morals of your organisation and are they accurately portraited … [Read more...] about Poetics and Risk Part IV; Poetics, Ethics and Risk
Book Launch – Free Download and Video
The Ethics of Risk, A Transdisciplinary-Semiotic Lens SPoR is pleased to announce the launch of our latest book: The Ethics of Risk, A Transdisciplinary-Semiotic Lens written by Andrew Larsen and Rob Long. This is book seventeen in the series presenting the Social Psychology of Risk. (Now with over … [Read more...] about Book Launch – Free Download and Video
The Non-Science of Safety
I was sent a photo last week of a so-called Board of Certified Safety Professionals Research and Innovation Summit (https://www.bcsp.org/events ). At this summit was a presentation about ‘measuring safety culture’. Of course, presented by an engineer. This was the same person that presented a course … [Read more...] about The Non-Science of Safety
There’s No ‘Cookie Cutter Safety’, Ethics in Safety is Eclectic
Despite all the models of risk assessment in Safety, all are subjective and eclectic. Things like the risk matrix, swiss-cheese, ALARP and Due Diligence are all premised on the subjectivity of the people conducting the risk assessment. It’s all subjective and situational. Indeed, that is the … [Read more...] about There’s No ‘Cookie Cutter Safety’, Ethics in Safety is Eclectic
Is Restorative Justice a Panacea For Under Reporting?
One of the ideas championed by the Just Culture (JC) cult, is the idea that Restorative Justice (RJ) is a mechanism to deliver a so called ‘Just Culture’. This is driven by a fixation on under-reporting and a simplistic approach to blame. The trouble with the presentation of this view is that it … [Read more...] about Is Restorative Justice a Panacea For Under Reporting?
Safety is NOT a Duty
I heard a safety academic the other day on a podcast (that espoused it was ‘leading’) that safety was a ‘duty’. Of course, the academic concerned had no expertise in ethics nor that such a comment espoused a deontological ethic. Deontological (Kantian) ethics is the foundation of the AIHS BoK … [Read more...] about Safety is NOT a Duty
The Ethics of Surveillance and Safety
Just because one desires zero injuries doesn’t justify unethical practice. The outcome of safety and a duty towards safety are always undone when persons are dehumanised (harmed) in the process. How absurd the proposal for zero harm when people are harmed in the process of seeking zero!!! The … [Read more...] about The Ethics of Surveillance and Safety
Don’t Do the Right Thing in Safety
The idea that people instinctively know what is right and wrong is naïve, immature and unprofessional. Anyone who lives in the real world knows that a host of things affect moral, cultural and ethical judgment. The same applies to the notion of ‘common sense’. There is no sensemaking that is held in … [Read more...] about Don’t Do the Right Thing in Safety