1st Edition
Constructing Risk and Safety in Technological Practice
Modern technological systems entail risks and uncertainties of hitherto unknown dimensions. This book discusses the construction of risk and safety within a variety of empirical contexts where technologies and their risk are debated and handled by individuals, groups or organizations. With contributions from leading scholars from Europe and the USA, it presents original theoretical discussions, linked to detailed empirical case studies.
Part I: Interpreting Accidents
Introductory Comments
1. Judith Green The Ultimate Challenge for Risk Technologies: Controlling the Accidental
2. Jörg Potthast Narratives of Trust in Constructing Risk and Danger: Interpretations of the Swissair 111 Crash
3. Sidney W. A. Dekker Re-situating Your Data: Understanding the Human Contribution to Accidents
Part II: Defining Risks
Introductory Comments
4. Jane Summerton 'Talking Diesel': Negotiating and Contesting Environmental Risks of Automobility in Sweden
5. Andrew Koehler Defining Risk and Safety in a High Security Organization: 'Bunkering' at the Los Alamos Plutonium Handling Facility
Part III: Constructing Safety
Introductory Comments
6. Gene I. Rochlin Safety as a Social Construct: The Problem(atique) of Agency
7. Johan M. Sanne Creating Trust and Achieving Safety in Air Traffic Control
8. Sabrina Thelander The Social Construction of Safety in the Face of Fear and Distrust: The Case of Cardiac Intensive Care
9. Marianne Döös and Tomas Backström Constructing Workplace Safety through Control and Learning: Conflict or Compatibility?
Biography
Jane Summerton, sociologist of technology, is associate professor at the Department of Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Sweden. Her previous work has focussed on managerial and user practices in sociotechnical networks and systems, particularly in relation to energy and environmental issues. Her current research concerns 'non-user' practices in technology and their intersections with socio-economic resources, ethnicity and gender.
Boel Berner, sociologist and historian, is professor at the Department of Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Sweden. Her research has focussed on the identities and practices of technical experts, in work, education and in relation to risk, and on questions of gender and technology. Her most recent books in English are Gendered Practices (ed. 1996) and Manoeuvring in an Environment of Uncertainty (ed. with Per Trulsson, 2000)
