Resilience Engineering in Practice: Becoming Resilient

This is the fifth book published within the Ashgate Studies in Resilience Engineering series. The first volume introduced resilience engineering broadly. The second and third volumes established the research foundation for the real-world applications that then were described in the fourth volume: Resilience Engineering in Practice. The current volume continues this development by focusing on the role of resilience in the development of solutions. Since its inception, the development of resilience engineering as a concept and a field of practice has insisted on expanding the scope from a preoccupation with failure to include also the acceptable everyday functioning of a system or an organisation. The preoccupation with failures and adverse outcomes focuses on situations where something goes wrong and the tries to keep the number of such events and their (adverse) outcomes as low as possible. The aim of resilience engineering and of this volume is to describe how safety can change from being protective to become productive and increase the number of things that go right by improving the resilience of the system.

Christopher P. Nemeth (PhD, human factors/ergonomics) is a Principal Scientist in the Cognitive Systems Engineering Group at Cognitive Solutions Division of Applied Research Associates, Inc. Recent research interests include technical work in complex high stakes settings, research methods in individual and distributed cognition, and understanding how information technology erodes or enhances system resilience. He has served as a committee member of the National Academy of Sciences, is widely published in technical journals, and his books include Human Factors Methods for Design (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press), as well as Ashgate texts Improving Healthcare Team Communication, Resilience Engineering Perspectives, Volume 1: Remaining Sensitive to the Possibility of Failure and Resilience Engineering Perspectives, Volume 2: Preparation and Restoration. His design and human factors consulting practice and his corporate career have encompassed a variety of application areas, including health care, transportation and manufacturing. As a consultant, he has performed human factors analysis and product development, and served as an expert witness in litigation related to human performance. His academic career has included adjunct positions with Northwestern University’s McCormick College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Associate Professor), and Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Design Research Society, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and Vice-President, Human-Machine Systems of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, and Chair of the National Defense Industry Association’s Human Systems Division. He retired from the Navy in 2001 at the rank of Captain after a 30-year active duty and reserve career. Erik Hollnagel (PhD, psychology) is Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Chief Consultant at the Center for Quality Improvement, Region of Southern Denmark, and Professor Emeritus at University