The teacher for this course is Dr Andrew Hopkins,
author of Managing Major Hazards: The Lessons of the Moura Mine Disaster, and Lessons from Longford: The Esso Gas Plant Explosion
Andrew is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Course Précis
This course will look primarily at ‘man made’ disasters, such as nuclear power station failures, airline crashes, and coal mine explosions. It will look at ways in which these disasters have been explained and the ways in which society apportions blame, very often to individuals. It will show that in almost all circumstances there are organisational failures involved, particularly failures to collect and act on warning signs. Students will be asked to apply these ideas by analysing reports of contemporary Australian disasters such as the Thredbo landslide, the F111 maintenance fiasco which ruined the health of 400 Air Force workers at Amberley, the Sydney Hobart yachting tragedy which took to six lives in December 1998, the Moura coal mine explosion. Students will be free to use any comprehensive accident investigation report to which they may have access.
Mode of Delivery and Prerequisites
This course is being run as a regular lecture/tutorial course at the Australian National University. It will be run simultaneously as an online course. It is an essential prerequisite for students doing the course in online mode that they have regular access to a network-connected computer throughout the semester and that they have email. If you are out of reach of network connection for a significant part of the semester you will not be able to do this course. Videos and lectures will be delivered via the internet and students will be involved in a regular on line tutorial discussion.
Application Forms
- INSTRUCTIONS FOR ENROLMENT IN SOCIOLOGY OF DISASTERS ON-LINE
COURSE
as an undergraduate course (SOCY 2008)
- INSTRUCTIONS FOR CROSS-INSTITUTIONAL ENROLMENT IN SOCIOLOGY
OF DISASTERS ON-LINE COURSE
as a graduate course (SOCY6008)
More information: Andrew.Hopkins@anu.edu.au
Phone: 61 (0)2 6125 4793
Some images courtesy of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder