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Normal Accidents
Charles Perrow
€ 46.99
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Description for Normal Accidents
Paperback. Analyzes the social side of technological risk. This book argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety - building in more warnings and safeguards - fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. It asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. Num Pages: 464 pages. BIC Classification: JH; KNXC; TGPR. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 234 x 155 x 28. Weight in Grams: 654.
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 ... Read more
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 ... Read more
Product Details
Publisher
Princeton University Press United States
Number of pages
386
Format
Paperback
Publication date
1999
Condition
New
Weight
665g
Number of Pages
464
Place of Publication
New Jersey, United States
ISBN
9780691004129
SKU
V9780691004129
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-19
About Charles Perrow
Charles Perrow is Professor of Sociology at Yale University. His other books include The Radical Attack on Business, Organizational Analysis: A Sociological View, Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay, and The AIDS Disaster: The Failure of Organizations in New York and the Nation.
Reviews for Normal Accidents
"[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' ... Read more
John Pfeiffer, The New York Times "[Perrow's] research undermines promises that 'better management' and 'more operator training' ... Read more