“737-Cabriolet”: The Limits of Knowledge and the Sociology of Inevitable Failure
2011; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 117; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/662383
ISSN1537-5390
Autores Tópico(s)Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance
ResumoThis article looks at the fateful 1988 fuselage failure of Aloha Airlines Flight 243 to suggest and illustrate a new perspective on the sociology of technological accidents. Drawing on core insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge, it highlights, and then challenges, a fundamental principle underlying our understanding of technological risk: a realist epistemology that tacitly assumes that technological knowledge is objectively knowable and that "failures" always connote "errors" that are, in principle, foreseeable. From here, it suggests a new conceptual tool by proposing a novel category of man-made calamity: the "epistemic accident," grounded in a constructivist understanding of knowledge. It concludes by exploring the implications of epistemic accidents and a constructivist approach to failure, sketching their relationship to broader issues concerning technology and society, and reexamining conventional ideas about technology, accountability, and governance.
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