skip to main content
LOTERRE

LOTERRE

Search from vocabulary

Content language

| español français
Search help

Concept information

Preferred term

normal accident theory  

Definition(s)

  • Normal accident theory describes organizations and technologies that are so complex that accidents are to be expected as a normal outcome. In Normal Accidents, Charles Perrow examined such high-risk technologies as nuclear power, petrochemical plants, and air travel (as well as the organizations managing them), and concluded that it is the combination of complex interaction and tight coupling among the subparts of these systems that makes them accident-prone, regardless of the precautions taken. [Source: Encyclopedia of Governance; Normal Accident Theory]

Belongs to group

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/N9J-Z9659126-L

Download this concept: