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The limits of normal accident theory

Hopkins, Andrew

Description

Embedded in Perrow's book Normal Accidents is a theory of normal accidents. The theory is limited in a number of important respects. First, it applies to only a very small category of accidents. Second, its concepts are ill-defined leading to serious ambiguities about just what the theory covers. Third, in some crucial respects it appears to be wrong. Fourth, recent attempts to reformulate the theory by expanding it in various ways - by incorporating basic insights from organizational sociology...[Show more]

dc.contributor.authorHopkins, Andrew
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-13T23:22:36Z
dc.identifier.issn0925-7535
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/91529
dc.description.abstractEmbedded in Perrow's book Normal Accidents is a theory of normal accidents. The theory is limited in a number of important respects. First, it applies to only a very small category of accidents. Second, its concepts are ill-defined leading to serious ambiguities about just what the theory covers. Third, in some crucial respects it appears to be wrong. Fourth, recent attempts to reformulate the theory by expanding it in various ways - by incorporating basic insights from organizational sociology along with the concepts of interest group and power - actually replace rather than expand the theory. Finally, the theory is of very limited policy relevance.
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.sourceSafety Science
dc.subjectKeywords: Accident prevention; Disasters; Normal accident theory; Accidents; accident; authority; disaster; model; policy; priority journal; short survey; theory Disasters; Normal accidents; Perrow
dc.titleThe limits of normal accident theory
dc.typeJournal article
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.description.refereedYes
local.identifier.citationvolume32
dc.date.issued1999
local.identifier.absfor111705 - Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety
local.identifier.ariespublicationMigratedxPub22293
local.type.statusAccepted Version
local.contributor.affiliationHopkins, Andrew, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage93
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage102
local.identifier.doi10.1016/S0925-7535(99)00015-6
dc.date.updated2015-12-12T09:11:45Z
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-0033166253
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dc.provenancehttps://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/16957..."The Accepted Version can be archived in a Non-Commercial Institutional Repository. 36 months embargo" from SHERPA/RoMEO site (as at 10/05/2023).
dc.rights.licenseCC BY-NC-ND
CollectionsANU Research Publications

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