Foregrounding threats to disaster investigations with actor-network theory

Figures & data

Figure 1. An actor-network is composed of stories (intangibles) and things (tangibles). The former shape the nature, environment and behaviour of the latter [24].

Table A1. ANT concepts.

Term	Meaning
Actor (‘actant’ in Latour’s actor-network argot)	An actor (actant) can be, in nature, tangible – for example, a worker, manager, pit-prop, conveyor belt, machine-tool, factory building, delivery truck or checklist – or intangible – for example, an organisational culture, corporate vision, product proposition, cronyism, religious belief, lie or Zeitgeist. Actors, tangible and intangible, act on other actors, and on the environment, in furtherance of the network’s interests.
Actor-network (‘hybrid-collectif’ in Latour’s actor-network argot)	An actor-network, consisting of actors, tangible and intangible, is a purposive social artefact. Examples include airframers (aircraft) and police forces (security).
Principle of Generalised Symmetry	The Principle of Generalised Symmetry holds that actors, whether tangible or intangible, are invested with agency. In the same way that a shop-floor worker, machine-tool or newspaper article has agency, a prejudice, aspiration or ideology has agency.
Translation	Translation is the process whereby actors seek to recruit – translate – other actors. Networks accrue actors. Translation proceeds through four stages: Problematisation (the problem to be solved is defined); Interessement (prime movers recruit actors to the cause); Enrolment (roles are defined); Mobilisation (actors are primed for action).
Alignment	Alignment addresses actors’ complementarity. The greater this is, the more aligned are the actors. Alignment and network impact and resilience are positively related.

Table A2. Key actant-components of the Allies’ mustard gas actor-network.

Actants
Tangible	Intangible
President Roosevelt	A determination that if the Axis powers used chemical weapons, the Allies would respond in kind
Prime Minister Churchill	A fear that if Hitler learned that the Allies were stockpiling chemical weapons on Italian soil, he might order a pre-emptive strike against Allied formations
The Grand Alliance’s military apparatus	A fear that chemical weapons could disrupt, or even defeat, a strategic manoeuvre, such as 1944’s Operation Overlord that saw hundreds of thousands of soldiers delivered to the beaches of Normandy in an effort to open a second front, thereby appeasing a restive Marshal Stalin
The M47A2 mustard gas bomb	A culture of secrecy and denial in politics and the military
The Foggia chemical warfare stockpile
Denial, misinformation and disinformation. Such tactics were employed by the Allies to keep the stockpiling operation secret (regardless of the death and suffering such tactics might cause among troops and residents)

Table A3. Key actant-components of the wing-ice actor-network.

Actants
Tangible	Intangible
The West German government	The post-war Zeitgeist of bridge-building with Germany [36]
The British Government	The prioritising of geopolitical interests over the interests of individual citizens, whatever the consequences for those citizens
The West German Traffic and Transport Ministry	The social pathogens of blamism and fundamental attribution. Cook [40] notes ‘[a] social [and] cultural need to blame specific, localised forces or events for outcomes’
An act of omission, specifically Thain’s failure to check for wing-ice prior to take-off
A photograph taken before the third take-off run that showed what appeared to be snow on the upper-surfaces of the aircraft’s wings
Wing-ice. Hours after the crash, the West German Traffic and Transport Ministry found ice on the wing upper-surfaces

Table A4. Key actor-components of Captain James Thain’s runway contamination actor-network.

Actors
Tangible	Intangible
The British Prime Minister. Harold Wilson pointedly remarked at a Manchester United FC dinner: ‘The one thing I regret is that the captain of that aircraft has been unjustly treated’ (Wilson cited in Sunday Mirror [43])	Thain’s belief that he and his deceased colleague were blameless
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE). The RAE researched the effect of runway contamination on aircraft runway performance	Thain’s belief that objective scientific data, dispassionately presented, would exonerate him and his colleague
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA)	Thain’s desire to protect his family (his daughter was bullied at school)

Table A5. Key actor-components of New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon’s anti-CoI actor-network.

Actants
Tangible	Intangible
The Prime Minister’s advisory group on the CoI	A desire to see the nation’s flag-carrier prosper
Air New Zealand (ANZ). According to The New Zealand Herald [51], ANZ participated in the Prime Minister’s advisory group – essentially a political formation – despite the airline being called to give evidence	Respect for the CIAA’s findings amongst the pilots who reviewed the CoI report
The Prime Minister’s friendship with ANZ’s CEO	Since the dead cannot speak, the knowledge that a reductionist analysis that blamed the pilots was incontestable by those most intimately involved. Fundamental attribution would, in this case, be low-risk. The New Zealand Herald [51] insightfully observed: ‘[The] accident report … blamed pilot error – far less damaging to the Government than systems-failure at the state-owned airline’
Leaks to the advisory group from within the CoI
The CIAA’s report (that found the pilots culpable)

Table A6. The immediate and proximate causes of the 1989 Air Ontario Dryden (Canada) accident.

Immediate and proximate causes
Immediate	Proximate
Snow/ice on the F28’s wings	Air Ontario’s limited experience of jet operations
Runway contamination	Tolerance of open maintenance items (for example, the Dryden aircraft’s APU)
Flight crew stress	Inadequate training (for example, in respect of runway contamination and crew resource management)
Failure to perform a walk-around	The Dryden crew’s limited experience on the F28
Poor communication: the Dryden Dispatcher failed to inform the crew of the snow/ice accumulation on the aircraft's wings	A dearth of active foresight. The airline required Captain Morwood to fly an aircraft with an unserviceable APU into an airport with no GPUs in icing conditions
	A national regulatory authority, Transport Canada (Transports Canada), that lacked the resources to discharge its statutory duties satisfactorily [48,53]

Table A7. Key actor-components of the Canadian aviation establishment’s actor-network-of-reaction.

Actants
Tangible	Intangible
The Privy Council. The Privy Council demanded that the CoI report to Canada’s Minister of Transport. (Fearing a conflict of interest, Moshansky convinced the Federal Government that the CoI should report to the independent Governor General in Council)	The Canadian aviation system’s desire to neutralise ‘outsider threats’ and maintain the status quo [55]
Transport Canada (Transports Canada). The regulator attempted, in Moshansky’s [55] words: ‘[T]o confine the Dryden inquiry to the facts of the accident itself, as opposed to a system-wide investigation’	A belief – not uncommon amongst investigators – that reductionist analyses provide adequate explanation for near-misses, incidents and accidents
The CASB. Seconded CASB investigators tried to convince Moshansky that it was acceptable to massage data and evidence
Air Ontario. The airline sought to prevent the naming of individuals in the CoI report (the airline was defeated in Federal Court)
The Canadian Air Line Pilots Association. The Association sought to prevent five Air Ontario pilots being called to testify (the pilots were called)
Transport Canada (Transports Canada). The regulator obfuscated and delayed. (Transport Canada co-operated after being threatened with subpoenas)

Table A8. Key actor-components of the SYP’s Fans-were-to-blame actor-network.

Actants
Tangible	Intangible
SYP	A sub-culture within SYP that tolerated the doctoring of police and witness statements
Whites Press Agency. Whites put out unevidenced stories from SYP officers complicit in the cover-up	Negative perceptions within government of football supporters
SYP Police Federation Branch. (The Police Federation is a staff association that represents the interests of police officers to employers and other parties)	Negative perceptions of Liverpool supporters post Heysel
Irvine Patnick MP. Local Conservative MP Irvine Patnick made derogatory comments about Liverpool supporters	Negative perceptions of the City of Liverpool. The July, 1981, Toxteth riots lasted eight days. The riots saw seventy buildings damaged and 460 police officers injured
The Sun. The tabloid newspaper printed unevidenced allegations against Liverpool supporters	Perceptions of the City of Liverpool as a repository of superannuated rust-belt industries unworthy of major government investment
A number of tabloid and broadsheet newspapers, for example, the Sheffield Star and Daily Telegraph, that reproduced unevidenced allegations against Liverpool supporters [57]	The authoritarian character of the government of the day
	The pro-police stance of the government of the day [57]

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