The Distinguished Lecture Series in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy: Prosaic Disasters
May 3,
4:30 pm
100 (Gregg Hall) Porter Hall
Speaker: Charles Perrow
Charles Perrow is a Research Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Yale University, and Visiting Professor at Stanford. His primary interest is the impact of large organizations on society (Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism, 2001), and their catastrophic potentials (Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies 1999). His current interests are in the vulnerabilities of the country’s critical infrastructures to natural, industrial, and deliberate disasters, covered in The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters. The 2007 edition is updated in a 2011 edition covering the 2008 economic meltdown, the 2010 Gulf oil spill, and the ongoing global warming.
This event is part of The Distinguished Lecture Series in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy: Human Dimensions of Technology, which is hosted by the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research and co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Education. In this lecture series, distinguished scholars will reflect on the perils and possibilities of technology, engineering, and environmental concerns.