The Mythic Symbology of Safety One of the strange contradictions in the world of safety is between the positivist materialist paradigm that dominates the WHS curriculum/texts and the mythic symbology that dominates safety discourse about the activity of enacting safe-work. How strange that one … [Read more...] about The Mythic Symbology of Safety
STEM
Wrong-Headed Safety
So much about the safety industry is about wrong thinking. The STEM-only worldview has us convinced that good safety is about rationality and cognition. This worldview has us convinced in typical binary framing that the emotions and rationality are opposites. Yet this is not how we live. This … [Read more...] about Wrong-Headed Safety
Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem
Introduction It is nearly ten years since the outstanding research by Wagner and Associates ‘Safety - A Wicked Problem’ was published (http://www.peterwagner.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Safety-A-Wicked-Problem2.pdf). The project examined responses by prominent CEOs to common problems associated in … [Read more...] about Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem
Anchoring Safety to Objects
Anchoring Safety to Objects Anchoring refers to a human bias that ‘holds’ to a view or position based upon how it was introduced and ‘sunk-cost’ associated with commitment to that position. Anchoring acts as a ‘fast and efficient’ heuristic that short cuts any need for challenge, questioning and … [Read more...] about Anchoring Safety to Objects
Positives and Negatives in Dialectic in Safety
Positives and Negatives in Dialectic in Safety I find it interesting how positives (in language and discourse) have now been attributed with a moral imperative in safety. Of course, negatives and positives ought to be held in balance/tension, one is not morally better than the other. If the outcome … [Read more...] about Positives and Negatives in Dialectic in Safety
Balance in Risk and Safety
Balance in Risk and Safety Safety in its short history has become a lopsided discipline dominated by STEM-only thinking exemplified in Behaviourism, Positivism and Engineering discourse. This has led to an objects focus evident in curriculum and Body of Knowledge that ignores many human aspects and … [Read more...] about Balance in Risk and Safety
SHEeple STEMspeak
Q. Have you ever wanted to impress at a virtual safety conference or zoom webinar event? A. Subscribe to SHEeple STEMspeak* Just select any three-digit number and the corresponding buzzwords from the grid below:Examples: 473 – synchronized reciprocal timeframe 688 – responsive organizational … [Read more...] about SHEeple STEMspeak
When Art Speaks to Harm
One of the fascinating ways we talk of concepts is to personify them. We talk about ‘the market’, ‘the economy’, ‘politics, ‘Canberra’, ‘society’, ‘Washington’ as if they are a person. We attribute personal value to these places and their behaviours as Archetypes. Most of the time we talk this way … [Read more...] about When Art Speaks to Harm
The Poetics of Risk
The idea of poetics stems back to Aristotle and denotes (https://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-poe/) experiences and non-technique (Ellul) focused modes of knowing and thinking (namely STEM). Poetry is one form of poetics but any form of non-technical expression and experience defines what it is to be … [Read more...] about The Poetics of Risk
Safety as a Knowledge Culture
We all know the saying ‘you can’t see the forest for the trees’ meaning, when you are so deep in something you can’t see what you are in. The saying also captures the dynamic of immersion, of being so deeply committed to something that it takes on a life of its own, on other words it becomes an … [Read more...] about Safety as a Knowledge Culture
