Practical safety, an ethical contribution to resilience

Hortense Blazsin (1) , Franck Guarnieri (1)

1 CRC - Centre de recherche sur les Risques et les Crises

As environments are becoming more and more complex, and less and less predictable, resilience and safety lie on ad hoc actions, decided by individuals in actual situations, in addition to adequate system design. We build on the work of a contemporary philosopher, Paul Ricoeur, to develop an approach of safety which articulates a system of rules with the confront them with the singularity of specific situations, through a process of "deliberation" which superior goal is to respect the principle of "solicitude" towards others, hence contributing to the ultimate goal of leading an ethical life. Such an approach requires that rules are applied autonomously by individuals, and that more broadly, they can express their "practical humanity". This possibility depends on the organizational environment in which they are set. Ricoeur calls the ideal-typical environment "just institution". We build on data gathered in the work practices of a gas distribution company to show that traces of practical humanity and deliberation are indeed present, although the organizational environment prevents them from developing fully. We term "practical safety" the approach of safety developed using Ricoeur's philsophy. A factor of "successful action", practical safety is favourable to organizational resilience.

Mots clés: Resilience; Safety

Domaines: Gestion des risques et des crises

Hortense Blazsin, Franck Guarnieri. Practical safety, an ethical contribution to resilience. The 6th REA Symposium : Managing resilience, learning to be adaptable and proactive in an unpredictable world., Resilience Engineering Association, Jun 2015, Lisbon, Portugal. ⟨hal-01169345⟩