ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the four principles that constitute the conceptual foundation of the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). They are the principle of the equivalence of failures and successes, the principle of approximate adjustments, the principle of emergence and the principle of functional resonance. The FRAM has been developed for a specific purpose more or less from scratch. The purpose was to provide a method that recognised successes as the flip side of failures - in other words, a method that focused on the nature of everyday activities rather than on the nature of failures. The FRAM refers to functional resonance rather than stochastic resonance. One realisation is that safety models and methods must go beyond simple cause-effect relations. There are a growing number of accidents that can be better understood as resulting from an alignment of conditions and occurrences than as direct consequences of failures and malfunctions.
