Digital Engineering Library

We all know the saying ‘ you can’t see the forest for the trees’ meaning, when you are so deep in something you can’t see what you are in. The saying also captures the dynamic of immersion, of being so deeply committed to something that it takes on a life of its own, on other words it becomes an Archetype. This is how we often speak of Safety as personified and Archtypical, as if it has a life of its own (and I think it does). Sometimes, it is those outside of the forest who are best placed to envision something different. They ask different questions and see the world differently. Sometimes it is the outsider who offers a different vision of possibilities and a creative imagination for understanding different trajectories. We often call such perceptions and observations ‘vision’. When one applies vision to practice we might call this ‘envisioning’. The idea of knowledge cultures is associated with the movement of transdisciplinarity (and multidisciplinarity) and recognizes Prof...

Its headless chook season again and out come the silly messages from employers and safety regulators telling us to be careful and shifting as much blame onto employees as possible. This pearl of wisdom from SafeWork Australia: “Alcohol and work health and safety do not mix. Stay safe when attending work Christmas parties” But this one, Thanks to Bob Cummins, may be more apt: There are a lot of those safety Christmas messages going around at the moment. And, apparently, according to the ILO, there is an increase in industrial and construction injuries at the festive season. But asking the worker to be careful is not going to change a thing. And by continuing to peddle this belief that the worker might not be paying attention because they are thinking of holidays, presents and the likes stops us form tackling the real problem, which is closer to the scheduling and planning of the works. So, here’s an alternative Christmas poster and message for you to ...

We hear of humans variously described as; “social beings”, “social creatures” or even as “social animals”. But what do we really mean when we talk in this way? What is the importance of being connected socially with others? What happens when we aren’t connected in this way? And, in considering topics that occupy much of our modern discourse; why is it important to consider humans as social beings if our goal is to support them with their mental health and even in relation to suicide? I came to really appreciate humans ‘socially’ while studying social psychology in 2012. This interest originated from frustration in what I recognise now, stemmed from working in an industry (in risk, health and safety) that at the time was fixated on objects (things) rather than subjects (people). It’s not that objects aren’t important when our aim is to prevent injury, harm or illness, but it seemed at the time that if we only focused on ‘things’, then somehow people would be miraculously prot...