Learning from Normal Accidents

Normal Accidents' growing influence since 1984 on social science scholarship and across academic, business and governmental disciplines was not accidental. Author Charles Perrow intended to shake up the study of safety and bring organization theory into the forefront. This article examines ongoing debates about the management of technological systems, reviews the book's important seeds of theory, and discusses the theoretical and practical issues related to a world growing more complex and technologically hazardous.