Cabriolet

The Limits of Knowledge and the Sociology of Inevitable Failure

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2222652
AutoresJohn Downer (0000-0003-0936-3628, Stanford University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen117
Número3
Páginas725-762
Fecha de publicación2011-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/662383
OpenAlexW1992924466
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas31
Referencias citadas42

This article looks at the fateful 1988 fuselage failure of Aloha Airlines Flight 243 to suggest and illustrate a new perspective on the sociology of technological accidents. Drawing on core insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge, it highlights, and then challenges, a fundamental principle underlying our understanding of technological risk: a realist epistemology that tacitly assumes that technological knowledge is objectively knowable and that “failures” always connote “errors” that are, in principle, foreseeable. From here, it suggests a new conceptual tool by proposing a novel category of man-made calamity: the “epistemic accident,” grounded in a constructivist understanding of knowledge. It concludes by exploring the implications of epistemic accidents and a constructivist approach to failure, sketching their relationship to broader issues concerning technology and society, and reexamining conventional ideas about technology, accountability, and governance

Epistemology · Sociology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies