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The Social Construction and Deconstruction of Risk

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Risk Management and Society

Part of the book series: Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research ((NTHR,volume 16))

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Abstract

In a paper presented to the 43rd IASS Conference in Rome in 1990, Capt. Heino Caesar, at that time General Manager, Flight Operations, Inspection and Safety Pilot for Lufthansa, identified a number of critical issues relating to air safety which require considered attention. In particular, Caesar drew attention to what he saw as an overreliance on technical and technological developments in the pursuit of improved air safety at the expense of a more systematic analysis of the organisational context. As an exceptionally experienced pilot, Caesar realised that many of the problems he encountered in his working life arose from the way in which tasks were classified and perceived, that safety was as much a problem of social construction as of technical resolution. As justification for this contention, he cited the evidence that over the previous thirty one years, that is up to 1990, in cases of total losses, 76% of cases were recorded as being the result of errors by cockpit crew.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newcastle Business School University of Northumbria at Newcastle Northumberland Building, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

    Heather Höpfl (Head of School of Operations Analysis and Human Resource Management)

Authors
  1. Heather Höpfl
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Risk and Crisis Management, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Eve Coles  & Denis Smith  & 

  2. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Steve Tombs

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Höpfl, H. (2000). The Social Construction and Deconstruction of Risk. In: Coles, E., Smith, D., Tombs, S. (eds) Risk Management and Society. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2913-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2913-0_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5682-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2913-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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