Are safety documents helping to navigate risks, or can they also create a hazardous illusion of control?
Happy to announce that my penultimate PhD study has been accepted for publication.
It analyses seven major industrial disasters, and many thousands of pages of reports, inquiries and testimonies, arguing that organizations’ are susceptible to what we call “safety alchemy”: the process of converting unresolved operational risk or uncertainty into false organisational assurance through convincing paperwork.
This was based on Dekker & Nyce’s concept of ‘ontological alchemy’, alchemy in this context referring to the illusion of magically transforming raw, uncertain issues into a more polished and anxiety-reducing format via paperwork – without necessarily changing things on the ground.
We cover how mandatory safety documents often act as “enabling devices” that displace attention away from physical sources of harm, allowing administrative compliance to masquerade as real-world risk control measures.
It has some interesting findings about safety-critical assurance within SMSs.
Will share once it’s fully published – in the meantime, why not check out my YouTube?
PS. Check out my YouTube: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=V2dbdmW–WbnhzA9
Shout a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson
#safetyscience #safety #risk
