8 pages on Failures

Topic: Not everything works the way it is supposed to. What do we do when technologies fail, why do they fail, how do we determine risk and blame for their failure, and do these problems require technical, social, or hybrid fixes?

Diane Vaughan, “Conformity and Tragedy,” Ch. 9 in The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA (University of Chicago Press, 1996), p.334-386.

Sonja Schmid, “Transformation Discourse: Nuclear Risk as a Strategic Tool in Late Soviet Politics of Expertise,” Science, Technology and Human Values 29 (2004): 353- 376.

British Petroleum Incident Investigation Team, “Overview of Deepwater Horizon Accident Analysis,” Section 4 in Deepwater Horizon Accident Analysis Report (September 8, 2010), p.31-48.