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The Fukushima Accident: The Limits of Organizational Control of Risk Technologies

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  • JOST HALFMANN

    (Institute of Sociology, Technical University Dresden)

Abstract

The failures of organization which run high technologies can be related to the fragile complexity of these organizations. Fragility is to mean here that the selectivity of decisions in organizations implies systematic non-knowledge about a multitude of events inside and outside the organization. It is for this reason that failures appear as surprises. It is not only the control of hazardous technologies which demands particular forms of alertness, it is also the selective preparedness for surprises which make these organizations accident-prone. The Fukushima accident resulted not simply from mismanagement, but from selective decisions about necessary and seemingly sufficient safety measures which, however, did not process enough available knowledge about possible environmental events threatening the operations of the power plants

Suggested Citation

  • Jost Halfmann, 2015. "The Fukushima Accident: The Limits of Organizational Control of Risk Technologies," International Journal of Applied and Physical Sciences, Dr K.Vivehananthan, vol. 1(1), pages 22-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:apa:ijapss:2015:p:22-26
    DOI: 10.20469/IJAPS.50004
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