The Mythic Symbology of Safety One of the strange contradictions in the world of safety is between the positivist materialist paradigm that dominates the WHS curriculum/texts and the mythic symbology that dominates safety discourse about the activity of enacting safe-work. How strange that one … [Read more...] about The Mythic Symbology of Safety
STEM
Wrong-Headed Safety
So much about the safety industry is about wrong thinking. The STEM-only worldview has us convinced that good safety is about rationality and cognition. This worldview has us convinced in typical binary framing that the emotions and rationality are opposites. Yet this is not how we live. This … [Read more...] about Wrong-Headed Safety
Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem
Introduction It is nearly ten years since the outstanding research by Wagner and Associates ‘Safety - A Wicked Problem’ was published (http://www.peterwagner.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Safety-A-Wicked-Problem2.pdf). The project examined responses by prominent CEOs to common problems associated in … [Read more...] about Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem
Anchoring Safety to Objects
Anchoring Safety to Objects Anchoring refers to a human bias that ‘holds’ to a view or position based upon how it was introduced and ‘sunk-cost’ associated with commitment to that position. Anchoring acts as a ‘fast and efficient’ heuristic that short cuts any need for challenge, questioning and … [Read more...] about Anchoring Safety to Objects
Understanding Safety Myths
Understanding Safety Myths The term ‘mythology’ is not understood well and is associated with the idea of legend/fairy tale but that’s not its meaning. It is certainly not how myth is defined in social psychology. Mythology is really a set of beliefs supported by semiotics (symbol systems) and … [Read more...] about Understanding Safety Myths
Positives and Negatives in Dialectic in Safety
Positives and Negatives in Dialectic in Safety I find it interesting how positives (in language and discourse) have now been attributed with a moral imperative in safety. Of course, negatives and positives ought to be held in balance/tension, one is not morally better than the other. If the outcome … [Read more...] about Positives and Negatives in Dialectic in Safety
Does Safety Have A Soul?
Does Safety Have A Soul? In Chapter 1 of my latest book Envisioning Risk, Seeing, Vision and Meaning in Risk , I discuss the linguistics of ‘soul’ in art, music and movies. In the top 500 songs of all time we find endless reference to spirit, transcendence, Afterlife, soul and the … [Read more...] about Does Safety Have A Soul?
Book Review: Critical Mass, How One thing Leads to Another
Book Review: Critical Mass, How One thing Leads to Another I don’t often read the work of chemists or physicists but Philip Ball is an exception. Ball applies what he knows from his Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM-only) worldview to the world of Social Psychology. It is an … [Read more...] about Book Review: Critical Mass, How One thing Leads to Another
The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety
The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety Risk and safety by their evolution through Engineering and Science have now become disciplines of quantity. Unfortunately, critical human skills like: communications, listening, dialogue, understanding persons, social psychology, community, ethics, … [Read more...] about The Quantitative and Qualitative Divide in Safety
Balance in Risk and Safety
Balance in Risk and Safety Safety in its short history has become a lopsided discipline dominated by STEM-only thinking exemplified in Behaviourism, Positivism and Engineering discourse. This has led to an objects focus evident in curriculum and Body of Knowledge that ignores many human aspects and … [Read more...] about Balance in Risk and Safety
