I’ve long been critical of the construct, and application of, ‘safety culture’ (at best, I’d probably be described as from the interpretive camp—e.g. ‘culture-as-metaphor’). I’ve covered lots of articles why – and others have argued far more nuanced reasons. So, I’m not covering that now. But in saying that, I’ve always found the following definition… Continue reading Safety Culture or: How cultures can both sensitise or blind us to danger
Tag: barry-turner
A culture of denial: Sociological similarities between the Moura and Gretley mine disasters
This 2000 paper from Hopkins compares the underlying sociological and organisation factors behind both the Moura and Gretley mine disasters. I’ve skipped a lot, so check out the full paper for the details. First he says that while every disaster has its own unique set of events, “It does not follow that every disaster requires… Continue reading A culture of denial: Sociological similarities between the Moura and Gretley mine disasters
Models of drift: man-made disaster & incubation, systemic migration, normalisation of deviance, practical drift
More extracts from Foundations of Safety Science, this time some points around the different perspectives of drift and disaster incubation. Some points: · “Disasters do not come out of the blue, says man-made disaster theory” but are “preceded by sometimes lengthy periods of gradually increasing risk” · These risks often go unnoticed or unrecognised – incubation period… Continue reading Models of drift: man-made disaster & incubation, systemic migration, normalisation of deviance, practical drift
SafetyInsights.org 