Situation awareness: some conditions of possibility

Abstract

Situation awareness (SA) has become a ubiquitous object of knowledge in our discourses of human performance and accident explanation. Based on Michel Foucault's archaeological approach, in this paper, we examine SA by mapping the ‘conditions of possibility’ for this object to emerge. By highlighting the logic that SA builds upon, the political need that it intends to address, and the knowledges that delimitate it in its constitution, we aim to display the contingent nature of this object. Ultimately, we argue that as a discursive object, SA has effects.

Keywords:

• situation awareness
• human factors
• Foucault
• archaeology
• conditions of possibility

Note

Relevance to ergonomics theory

This is the first study that takes a Foucauldian, archaeological, perspective to study the emergence of a particular object – situation awareness – of the human factor discourse. We believe that this perspective provides a new agenda of inquiry, as well as an opening for ethical discussions about the consequences of the discursive objects that our field provides.

Notes

1. The three accident reports analysed here would nowadays probably have substituted these explanations for the label ‘loss of SA’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roel van Winsen

Roel van Winsen is a PhD candidate in the Safety Science Innovation Lab, School of Humanities at Griffith University, Australia. He also works as a part-time mentor and lecturer in the Human Factors and System Safety Master's programme at Lund University's Leonardo da Vinci Laboratory for Complexity and Systems Thinking, Sweden. He holds a master's degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, as well as a master's degree in Human Factors and Systems Safety from Lund University, Sweden. He has worked as an air traffic controller (in training) for two years at Air Traffic Control, The Netherlands.

Eder Henriqson

Eder Henriqson is adjunct professor at the Faculty of Aeronautical Science at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in Brazil. He has bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Science at PUCRS, master's degree in Administration at PUCRS, and PhD degree in Industrial Engineering at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, with a collaborative research period at Lund University, Sweden.

Betina Schuler

Betina Schuler did her postdoctoral research at the Department of Education at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. She obtained her doctorate (PhD) and master's (MA) degree in Education at the PUCRS. Her undergraduate studies were in Pedagogy at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul (UNISC), Brazil. Currently, she is an adjunct professor in the Centre of Philosophy and Education at the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS), Brazil. She is connected to the Observatory of Education at UCS and the Observatory of Education at the UFRGS. Additionally, she is a teacher in a primary school in Porto Alegre.

Sidney W.A. Dekker

Sidney W.A. Dekker is professor at Griffith University in Australia, where he has founded the Safety Science Innovation Lab, and honorary professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. Previously, professor at Lund University, Sweden, and director of the Leonardo Da Vinci Center for Complexity and Systems Thinking, he gained his PhD degree in Cognitive Systems Engineering from the Ohio State University, OH, USA, in 1996. He has worked in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and England, and has been senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and visiting professor in healthcare safety in both, Melbourne, Australia and Manitoba, Canada. He has recently been flying part time as pilot on the Boeing 737NG with an airline out of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is author of several best-selling books on system failure and human error.