ABSTRACT
As the Ergonomics Society prepares to celebrate its 60th Anniversary it is fitting to reflect on the past achievements of the discipline and contemplate the prospects of ergonomics playing a more meaningful role in shaping the society of the future. The theme of the annual conference, “Contemporary Ergonomics”, challenges us to examine the current state of the discipline/profession in relation to important global issues. In this paper we examine the burden of occupational injuries as a major public health concern facing both industrialized and industrializing societies. In his book The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from
the StoneAge to theAge of Silicon, Stephen Sass (1999) traces how the discovery of new materials has shaped events throughout human history, enabling technological innovations and ushering in new eras. There is a hidden, yet a far deeper dimension running throughout the book that tells an even more compelling story. Read from the perspective that the discovery of new materials is but the outcome of the natural human drive to amplify our physical and mental power, what emerges is a compelling account of the evolution of ergonomics from an artform dealing with relatively simple machines to a science dealing with complex, dynamic systems. Indeed, the powerful story between the lines of this book provides a fascinating tour of the evolution of work systems.We begin with a brief description of selected milestones in the history of work systems, based loosely on Sass’ work, and with this as backdrop we discuss the emergence of occupational safety as a societal priority. From a high level perspective, workplace safety is a rather recent concern that demands far greater attention than it has received thus far. In particular, we argue
that future progress in occupational safety will need to embrace the principles of resilience engineering and be integrated with modern approaches to management systems.
