Normal Accidents

Living with High Risk Technologies - Updated Edition

By: Charles Perrow

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Paperback | 27 September 1999

At a Glance

Paperback
464 Pages

Edition Type
Revised

Dimensions(cm)
22.5 x 14.5 x 3

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Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them.

The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it "may mark the beginning of accident research." In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the "quintessential 'Normal Accident'" of our time: the Y2K computer problem.

Industry Reviews

"[Normal Accidents is] a penetrating study of catastrophes and near catastrophes in several high-risk industries. Mr. Perrow ... writes lucidly and makes it clear that 'normal' accidents are the inevitable consequences of the way we launch industrial ventures... An outstanding analysis of organizational complexity."--John Pfeiffer, The New York Times "[Perrow's] research undermines promises that 'better management' and 'more operator training' can eliminate catastrophic accidents. In doing so, he challenges us to ponder what could happen to justice, community, liberty, and hope in a society where such events are normal."--Deborah A. Stone, Technology Review "Normal Accidents is a testament to the value of rigorous thinking when applied to a critical problem."--Nick Pidgeon, Nature

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Engineering & Technology Technology in General Mechanical Engineering & Materials Production & Industrial Engineering Reliability Engineering Industry & Industrial Studies Industrial Relations, Health & Safety Health & Safety Issues Sociology & Anthropology Science Science in General

Impact of Science & Technology on Society Other Technologies & Applied Sciences

Abnormal Blessings	p. vii
Introduction	p. 3
Normal Accident at Three Mile Island	p. 15
Nuclear Power as a High-Risk System: Why We Have Not Had More TMIs--But Will Soon	p. 32
Complexity, Coupling, and Catastrophe	p. 62
Petrochemical Plants	p. 101
Aircraft and Airways	p. 123
Marine Accidents	p. 170
Earthbound Systems: Dams, Quakes, Mines, and Lakes	p. 232
Exotics: Space, Weapons, and DNA	p. 256
Living with High-Risk Systems	p. 304
Afterword	p. 353
Postscript: The Y2K Problem	p. 388
List of Acronyms	p. 413
Notes	p. 415
Bibliography	p. 426
Index	p. 441
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Normal Accidents

Living with High Risk Technologies - Updated Edition

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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