A long time ago in SPoR, we realised that the traditional curriculum in risk and safety needed to be extended. We called on reform of the curriculum many years ago (https://safetyrisk.net/isnt-it-time-we-reformed-the-whs-curriculum/). This challenge for reform was about adding to the safety … [Read more...] about Studying The SPoR Curriculum
Robert Long
Safety Fundamentalism
Is there such a thing as safety fundamentalism? The concept of fundamentalism was originally coined in reference to a rigid theological movement in the USA in 1905 upholding the literal interpretation of the Bible. More generally, fundamentalism refers to rigid ‘faith like’ exclusivity in thinking … [Read more...] about Safety Fundamentalism
Holistic Ergonomics, From Objects to Subjects – Edinburgh 4-6 February 2026
Why do we talk about ‘holistic ergonomics’? In the world of safety, the predominant language is about the control of ‘hazards’ (objects). We see this even in psychosocial discourse where the focus should be on persons, social meaning, ethics and an understanding of power, but it is not. In SPoR … [Read more...] about Holistic Ergonomics, From Objects to Subjects – Edinburgh 4-6 February 2026
Trust, the Foundation for Psychosocial Safety
I find it fascinating all these programs on psychosocial safety that don’t articulate a foundation in an ethic of trust/risk. There is no trust without risk nor psychosocial safety without trust. But most importantly, there is little point focusing on psychosocial safety if you think it is about … [Read more...] about Trust, the Foundation for Psychosocial Safety
Old Wine in Old Wineskins in Risk
All three writers of the gospels use the metaphor of wineskins to make the point that you can’t put new ideas into an old framework. You can’t squeeze a supposed new methodology into old methods. Many metaphors like this were used in the gospels, such as putting a patch on old clothes and eventually … [Read more...] about Old Wine in Old Wineskins in Risk
Contra-diction and Poetics in Risk
There is so much to learn about the development and nature of language. It is certainly not helped in safety by trying to turn language into some kind of mathematical equation (Usability Mapping). The beginning of understanding language is by studying and understanding the following: … [Read more...] about Contra-diction and Poetics in Risk
Praxis and SPoR
One of the things academics do well in safety is analyse Safety. What they don’t do well is, propose practical alternatives that involve the connection of theory to practice. The ancient Greeks knew this well and used the word ‘praxis’ as a way of learning through a special kind of practice. For … [Read more...] about Praxis and SPoR
The Sacred Triangle in Safety
There is little doubt that the triangle is ‘sacred’ to Safety. A search on Google for ‘safety triangle’ shows 297,000,000 results. The best way to work out if something is ‘sacred’ to a group is to suggest to take it away. Then watch the response, the sense of dependence and the dissonance in … [Read more...] about The Sacred Triangle in Safety
Safety as Avoidance
Safety as Avoidance The language of ‘error’ is unhelpful when it comes to understanding human judgment and decision making. One can assemble pyramids of ‘unsafe acts’ and ‘unsafe conditions’, fault trees of ‘active and latent failures’, maps of ‘violations’, ‘slips’ and ‘missed barriers’, sets of … [Read more...] about Safety as Avoidance
The Nature of ‘Safety Speak’
A collection of us are writing our next book Poetics and Risk, Feeling Into Being at the moment and we expect it to be released early next year. The book is about the importance of language in risk and being sensitised to making meaning (semiosis). Our contributors to the book are from: … [Read more...] about The Nature of ‘Safety Speak’