TY - CHAP
T1 - When the Risk Realizes on a Wintry Road
T2 - The Failure of the Socio-technical System of Land-Based Transport in Northern Conditions
AU - Suopajärvi, Leena
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - It was not a serious accident; neither humans nor animals came to any harm. But this small everyday event revealed the complexity of an entire system and the problems that arise from the system itself. On my way home from the weekend cottage in western Lapland, I got stuck in the snow, and as a result, the road traffic was stopped for about 1.5 hours. I will discuss the situation and my own experience by using Ulrich Beck’s analysis of the causes of risks. The risk may realize, first, in a situation where an individual endangers the system. In this case, I decided to drive on a road that had layers of windswept snow, and the car got stuck in the middle of the road, stopping all road traffic. Second, the risk may materialize if any part of the system fails. In my case, this was exactly the case: the road maintenance was running late. And third, the risk may materialize because the system itself does not work and there is some kind of basic operating failure in the very setup. I started thinking about this possibility only after I had reached the shelter of my home. In this article, I will analyze the entire road traffic system using the idea of a socio-technical system: how institutions, including not only authorities and decision-makers but also laws, rules, decisions and contracts affected the situation. How material elements, including not only technology like the car but also natural conditions affected the situation. And finally, how humans as actors on the scene, and just as well away from it, contributed to the occurrence of the accident.
AB - It was not a serious accident; neither humans nor animals came to any harm. But this small everyday event revealed the complexity of an entire system and the problems that arise from the system itself. On my way home from the weekend cottage in western Lapland, I got stuck in the snow, and as a result, the road traffic was stopped for about 1.5 hours. I will discuss the situation and my own experience by using Ulrich Beck’s analysis of the causes of risks. The risk may realize, first, in a situation where an individual endangers the system. In this case, I decided to drive on a road that had layers of windswept snow, and the car got stuck in the middle of the road, stopping all road traffic. Second, the risk may materialize if any part of the system fails. In my case, this was exactly the case: the road maintenance was running late. And third, the risk may materialize because the system itself does not work and there is some kind of basic operating failure in the very setup. I started thinking about this possibility only after I had reached the shelter of my home. In this article, I will analyze the entire road traffic system using the idea of a socio-technical system: how institutions, including not only authorities and decision-makers but also laws, rules, decisions and contracts affected the situation. How material elements, including not only technology like the car but also natural conditions affected the situation. And finally, how humans as actors on the scene, and just as well away from it, contributed to the occurrence of the accident.
KW - risk
KW - socio-technical system
KW - land-based transport
KW - traffic
KW - northern conditions
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-36445-7_7
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-36445-7_7
M3 - Chapter
SN - 978-3-031-36447-1
SN - 978-3-031-36444-0
T3 - Arctic Encounters
SP - 127
EP - 144
BT - Living and Working With Snow, Ice and Seasons in the Modern Arctic
A2 - Strauss-Mazzullo, Hannah
A2 - Tennberg, Monica
PB - Palgrave Macmillan
CY - Cham
ER -