ABSTRACT
Given the rapid growth in the number of books on error, safety, and safety management in recent years, the long-suffering reader will doubtless be asking first: why another book on safety? It should be explained at the outset that this book in some ways covers similar ground as other books in the field. It discusses accidents, why they happen, how they can be prevented, and related issues. However, in our defense, we would argue that in some important respects we have a different view of the subject from most safety experts. Partly this is because of our background (in social psychology, not engineering). However, the way we have come to look at the discipline is also partly because of the nature of our experiences in this type of work. Specifically, it stems from a gradual disillusionment we have felt as we have tried (and failed) to apply the standard methodologies of academic safety science to realworld safety situations. In our opinion, we are not alone in this disillusionment. Off the record, we have also heard many safety practitioners be overtly dismissive about the value of academic texts (unfortunately, texts written by psychologists seem to be viewed with particular disdain, we have to admit with chagrin). Academics, we have frequently been told, have no grasp of the realities of the practice of safety reduction: they have a tendency to be overtheoretical, to value hypothetical models over concrete models, to look for abstract laws as opposed to dealing in the specifics of given situations, and so forth.
