May 2008

Seminar
Co-Sponsored with the Department of Sociology

Theorizing: Interpretive Work in Qualitative Analysis

May 15, 12:30 - 2:00 PM
Social Science Plaza A, Room 2112

Diane Vaughan
Professor of International and Public Affairs, and Sociology
School of International and Public Affairs
Department of Sociology
Columbia University

Biography

Diane Vaughan is a Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.  Her work combines organization theory with the deviance literature to examine how things go wrong in organizations. Using analogical comparison of cases of failures in organizations that vary in size, complexity, and function, she has found common patterns. For example, in misconduct between two organizations, deteriorating intimate relationships, and NASA's two space shuttle accidents, the outcomes were preceded by long incubation periods typified by early warning signs that were either misinterpreted or ignored. Her current work examines the negative case: ethnography and interviews in four air traffic control facilities escapes the problems of retrospective analysis, examining how people make decisions when they are trained to identify anomalies early and correct them so that small mistakes do not turn into big ones with harmful outcomes. She is also interested in how the experience of mistakes in research leads to productive new directions and interpretations.