Emergence and non-emergence for system safety

Abstract

Emergence has been proposed as an important construct for research on the safety of sociotechnical systems. There is, however, some dissension about the fundamental nature of emergence. Furthermore, there is little clarity on how this construct might be used within safety research to guide analysis or design of sociotechnical systems. Emergence has proven to be a challenging construct to pin down in disciplines such as philosophy and computer science. Most troubling is that the distinction between emergent and non-emergent phenomena remains unclear. Here we offer a pragmatic view by outlining models of different types of emergence. We subsequently argue that one type, functional–semantic emergence, bears on a crucial distinction between Safety I and Safety II as discussed within system safety research. We conclude that safety of sociotechnical systems can be enhanced by integrating retroactive control of non-emergent phenomena with proactive control of emergent phenomena where retroactive control is achieved through use of rules and procedures and proactive control is achieved through attention to subtle information and use of recognition-primed decisions.

Practitioner Summary

Emergence has recently been invoked as an important construct in the systems safety literature. There is, nevertheless, some dissension in that literature regarding the nature of emergence and there is little explanation of how it can inform an approach to system safety. Here we contrast different models of emergence as a means of clarifying the nature of emergence and non-emergence. From there, we argue that the contrast between emergence and non-emergence can inform the contrast between Safety I and Safety II approaches to system safety.

Keywords:

• Emergence
• system safety
• socio-technical systems
• safety management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Dekker (2003) names these a Model 1 versus Model 2. Here, we use the terms offered by Hollnagel (2014) as the more contemporary characterization.

2 A process model, which focuses on how entities change and develop, can be set in contrast to a structural model like the information processing model in which structures such as memory and executive control constitute the major theoretical constructs.

3 A process similar conceptually to the progressive differentiation of stem cells into cells with different morphological structures and functions.

4 Explanations in terms of relationships between micro- and macro-phenomena have a history in the physical sciences, as for example, in discussion of properties of a gas whereby molecular momentum as a micro-state relates to pressure as a macro-state.

5 Within the philosophy of science and computer science (e.g., Abbot, 2008a; Humphreys 2016), the emergent is often said to autonomous of the underlying properties because it cannot be reduced to those properties. This use of the term autonomy aligns with the claim that the emergent is more than the sum of its parts but not with the meaning common within human factors, cognitive engineering, and safety science as relating to independence of action.

6 Relational in the same sense that weight is a relation between mass and gravitational force whereby if there is no gravitational force, weight is a potential but unrealized property.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gavan Lintern

Gavan Lintern retired in 2009 and now holds an adjunct position at the Monash University Accident Research Centre. He has a PhD in engineering psychology (University of Illinois, 1978). His primary research area is in the use of cognitive work analysis to identify cognitive requirements.

Peter N. Kugler

Peter N. Kugler has taught at Columbia University, University of Connecticut, UCLA, University of Illinois, and Radford University where he held the Dalton Professorship in Computer Science and Eminent Scholar. His appointments have been in Psychology, Engineering, and Computer Science. His published work has focused on problems related to self-organization, emergence through measurement, and semantics.