Inside Hazardous Technological Systems: Methodological foundations, challenges and future directions

This book explores the challenges, opportunities, applications, and implications of applying qualitative research to critical questions of research and practice in the field of organizational risk and safety.

The book brings together a diverse perspective to explore the practice of conducting qualitative research as well as to debate the quality of research and knowledge, drawing on a range of different perspectives and traditions. It offers novel and innovative developments in data collection and data analysis methods and tools that can be applied to safety, risk, and accident analysis in complex systems. It also will present practical issues associated with data access and empirical research in challenging and high-stakes environments.

This book will provide academics, researchers, students, and professionals in the fields of safety, accident analysis, and risk with a broad-range and expert guide to the key issues and debates in the field, as well as a set of exemplary cases and reflective narratives from leading researchers in the field.

Kenneth Pettersen Gould is associate professor in risk management and societal safety at the University of Stavanger, specializing in organizational risk and safety management. His research concerns hazardous technologies; how risk, reliability, safety and security is analysed and managed in organizational contexts; and how regulatory and management strategies in these areas can be further developed.

Carl Macrae is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Psychology in the Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership and Learning at Nottingham University Business School. His research examines how organisations manage safety, reliability and resilience; how people make sense of and learn from unexpected events; and how organisational and regulatory systems can be designed to support learning and improvement. Carl regularly advises organisations, regulators and policymakers on challenging safety and risk issues. Carl is also a Professor II in the SHARE Centre for Resilience in Healthcare at University of Stavanger, Norway.