There are numerous psychological studies of pilots and piloting, but little has been done in the way of sociological examination. Commercial aviation is one of the world's biggest industries, yet there are few studies of pilots as social beings and of their place of work, the flight-deck. Developing a sociological understanding of front-line staff and of pilots' working environments is an important step to developing a more detailed understanding of this increasingly important sector. This...

This book paints a detailed picture of the commercial pilot lifestyle, from the struggle to pay for training to time spent down route to thoughts of retirement. Once a glamorous occupation, commercial flying is today more of a job than a vocation with many pilots working the maximum permissible hours for increasingly meagre rewards under evermore stressful conditions. Pilots talk candidly about acute and chronic fatigue, short-notice roster changes that leave them insufficiently rested, no...

As the Russia-Ukraine War sees its fourth year, this book provides a timely analysis of the successes and failures of Ukraine's campaign to expel Russian forces from sovereign Ukrainian territory. Lessons are drawn using sociological approaches to risk management such as systems-thinking, organising for high-reliability, latent and active error, mindfulness, groupthink, strategic empathy, passive and active learning, single and double-loop learning, isomorphic learning and active foresight...

“As a student at Bristol University I became aware of two things. The first was my own brokenness and complete inability to fix myself. The second was, similarly, the brokenness of the world and its inability to fix itself. Both needed redemption and both needed a saviour. Both were in denial if they thought they could muddle through without one! I was fortunate enough to meet Christians who could explain to me both God’s plan for my redemption through the cross, and His plan for the redem...

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to travelas one big, happy familyover one thousand miles in a motor home? Simon Bennett did more than think about it: He decided to do it. It all began when he and his wife, Emma, adopted a dolphin and a polar bear as gifts to give to their twin children on their eighth birthday: Jessica and Jacob. But the determined Jessica simply had to see her adopted dolphin, which the family learned was named Sundance and lived in the Moray Firth in the hig...

A manifesto for the systems-thinking-informed approach to incident and accident investigation, this accessible text is aimed at experts and generalists. A Glossary of Terms explains key concepts.The premise is both unoriginal and original. Unoriginal, because it stands on the shoulders of systems-thinking pioneers – Barry Turner, Bruno Latour, Charles Perrow, Erik Hollnagel, Diane Vaughan and other luminaries. Original, because it is populist: The Systems-thinking for Safety

This monograph evaluates the consequences for ICT users of failures in the supply of electricity. As demand for electricity grows it is vital that the electricity generating industry expands its capacity. It is also vital that the networks (grids) that deliver that electricity are up to the task. There is talk in Britain of an impending ‘energy gap’ and in the United States of a grid at breaking point. Case studies illustrate the consequences for advanced societies of power outages. It is ...

Aviation safety and astronautics safety are taught as technical subjects informed, for the most part, by quantitative methods. Here, as in other fields, safety is often framed as an engineering problem requiring mathematics-informed solutions. This book argues that the socio-technical approach, encompassing theories grounded in sociology and psychology – such as active learning, high-reliability organising, mindfulness, leadership, followership and empowerment – has much to contribute to t...

Graft is a common and persistent social pathogen that afflicts the developed and developing world in equal measure. This book describes, through the medium of international case studies, how graft undermines public safety and how, following a near-miss, incident or accident, investigators can use actor-network theory (ANT) to ascertain to what degree and through what mechanisms graft contributed to the event.The book introduces the reader to graft through a variety of case studies ...

First published in 2015, this second edition of the Aviation Safety and Security: The Importance of Teamwork, Leadership, Creative Thinking and Active Learning monograph has been thoroughly revised and updated, with new case studies and insightful observations on the prospects for aviation safety and security in today’s turbulent world. Essential reading for aviation professionals, academics and students, the monograph uses sociological approaches to risk management to show how av...

Risk is an enduring theme of modern life. It permeates political, economic and environmental domains. Some risks are unavoidable. Others are not. Innovative Thinking in Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management provides ideas and action plans for in a risk society.Dealing with issues of civil safety and security, the book addresses the management of socio-technical risks and hazards, environmental risk, and risk perception. Focusing on risk reduction, chapters cover key themes...

This fascinating book, which presents an early psychoanalyst’s session-by-session notes on a case of hysteria caused by severe sexual trauma and incest, offers a vivid portrait of psychoanalytic practice in the second decade of the twentieth century. Accompanying these notes are insightful commentaries by Elizabeth Lunbeck and Bennett Simon that situate the case historically and throw light on the many difficulties that both analyst and patient encountered in the treatment. The book will b...