Project Abstract
COMPLETED
However postgraduate students who wish to examine other disasters are welcome to make a proposal to me.
This research project seeks to infer the factors that contributed to an accident, by examining the official accident report. The case under examination is the Pike River disaster report. This is over 400 pages long and the intent is to see whether qualitative research methods can help bring understanding to why the accident happened. We are seeking to not only better understand the contributory factors, but also develop a methodology to mine the large written reports generated by these public enquiries. This is worth doing as these reports tend to be so taken up in detail that the big picture is obscured and hence the opportunity to learn from disaster is limited.
