Democracy in practice? The Norwegian public inquiry of the Alexander L. Kielland North-Sea oil platform disaster

In March 1980, the oil-platform Alexander L. Kielland capsized in the North Sea resulting in the death of 123 workers. The Norwegian inquiry into the disaster was closed to the public and the survivors' accounts of the disaster differed considerably from the official account. The inquiry was ex...

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Published in:Journal of critical realism 2021-10, Vol.20 (5), p.525-541
Main Authors: Weihe, Hans-Jørgen Wallin, Smith-Solbakken, Marie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Critical realism
Democracy
disaster
Disasters
Epistemology
inquiry
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interdisciplinary research
Offshore
oil
Petroleum
public
Rationality
Transparency
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description In March 1980, the oil-platform Alexander L. Kielland capsized in the North Sea resulting in the death of 123 workers. The Norwegian inquiry into the disaster was closed to the public and the survivors' accounts of the disaster differed considerably from the official account. The inquiry was experienced as undemocratic by those who had been in the disaster. Many of them felt humiliated, claiming that their opinions were not given due weight. We argue that if the inquiry had been more transparent and inclusive, important information would have been made available that might have prevented subsequent disasters. Such transparency would be supported if disaster commissions used a critical realist version of knowledge acquisition based on a layered ontology and grounded in an epistemology that uses retroduction and judgemental rationality. In this article, critical realism is also used to justify the interdisciplinary nature of the research, which starts with historical methods.
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source International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS); Taylor & Francis
subjects Critical realism
Democracy
disaster
Disasters
Epistemology
inquiry
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interdisciplinary research
Offshore
oil
Petroleum
public
Rationality
Transparency
title Democracy in practice? The Norwegian public inquiry of the Alexander L. Kielland North-Sea oil platform disaster
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