A multi-perspective account of safety (MUPSY)

Abstract

Many aspects of safety work, i.e. the things people do to prevent accidents, tend to remain invisible or tacit, sometimes even to the actors themselves. This invisibility poses methodological challenges for researchers and practitioners who try to learn from successful (i.e. safe) operations. We comment on the visibility and invisibility of safety work and describe the process of developing a multi-perspective account of safety (MUPSY) as an attempt to sensitise practitioners to actions, patterns of interaction and practices that contribute to safe operations.