ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a new method for accident analysis based on a framework we developed originally for reflection of practices in analyses on normal daily work. Understanding risky work studies on normal daily work could have advantages over studies on accidents. The chapter focuses on two related themes affecting the opportunities for learning: the accident models behind the investigation methods, and analysis of practice in accident investigation. This accident analysis method was mainly developed while analysing marine accidents. The restrictions of the sequential and epidemiological models become more and more recognized when analysing accidents in complex socio-technical systems, and especially in comprehending the human role within them. The chapter describes how the generic Core Task Analysis (CTA) approach was applied to accident analysis. The CTA framework is grounded in the cultural-historical theory of activity but it also draws on American pragmatism and its conceptions of human conduct and comprehension in a continuously changing environment.
