Diane Vaughan Explained

Diane Vaughan is an American sociologist and professor at Columbia University. She is known for her work on organizational and management issues, in particular in the case of the space shuttle Challenger Disaster.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Career

Diane Vaughan studied Sociology at Ohio State University, and received her PhD in 1979. From 1979 to 1982 she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Sociology of Social Control at Yale University. From 1982-1984 she was a Research Associate, at Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, and then joined the Department of Sociology at Boston College. From 1986 to 1987 she was a Visiting Fellow, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford.She taught at Boston College from 1984 to 2005.^[4] Since 2005 she has been a Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Awards

Vaughan is a laureate of the Public Understanding of Sociology Award, of the American Sociological Association. The Challenger Launch Decision (1996) won the Rachel Carson Prize (inaugural winner)^[5] and the Robert K. Merton Award, as well as being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.^[6]

Work

In the understanding of safety and risk, Vaughan is perhaps best known for coining the phrase "normalization of deviance",^[7] which she has used to explain the sociological causes of the Challenger and Columbia disasters.^{[8] [9] [10]} Vaughan defines this as a process where a clearly unsafe practice comes to be considered normal if it does not immediately cause a catastrophe: "a long incubation period [before a final disaster] with early warning signs that were either misinterpreted, ignored or missed completely."^{[11] [12]}

In the study of relationships, Vaughan is known for her research into the process of relationship breakups.^{[13] [14] [15] [16]}

Bibliography

• Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior (1983).
• Uncoupling. Turning Points in Intimate Relationships (1986), Oxford University Press.
• The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA (1996), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• “Theorizing: Analogy, Cases, and Comparative Social Organization.”(2014) In: Richard Swedberg (ed.), Theorizing in the Social Sciences. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 61-8
• Book: Vaughan, Diane. Dead Reckoning: Air Traffic Control, System Effects, and Risk. University of Chicago Press. 2021. 9780226796406.

See also

• Elephant in the room
• Groupthink

External links

• Faculty bio

Notes and References

1. Web site: Villeret . Bertrand . May 2008 . Interview: Diane Vaughan . 2017-09-01 . ConsultingNewsLine.
2. News: How an Organizational Breakdown at NASA Let the Challenger Lift Off. Campbell-Dollaghan. Kelsey. Gizmodo. 2017-09-01. en-US.
3. News: Haberman. Clyde. Clyde Haberman. Challenger, Columbia and the Nature of Calamity. The New York Times. 2 June 2014 . 1 September 2017.
4. Web site: Diane Vaughan, Department of Sociology. sociology.columbia.edu. en. 2017-09-01.
5. Web site: 4S Prizes: Rachel Carson Prize . Society for Social Studies of Science . December 24, 2019 . December 7, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171207192041/http://www.4sonline.org/prizes/carson . dead .
6. News: Diane Vaughan Award Statement. 2009-06-09. American Sociological Association. 2017-09-01. en.
7. Book: Vaughan, Diane. The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, Enlarged Edition, pg, 62. 2016-01-04. University of Chicago Press. 9780226346960. en.
8. Web site: McGuire. Kristi. The Normalization of Deviance. The Chicago Blog. 7 January 2016 . University of Chicago. 1 September 2017.
9. Web site: Wilcutt. Terry. Bell. Hal. The Cost of Silence: Normalization of Deviance and Groupthink. NASA. 1 September 2017.
10. Web site: Howe. Sandra. Risky Decisions: Sociologist says NASA's culture led to Challenger disaster. BC Chronicle. Boston College. 4 September 2017.
11. Banja. John. The normalization of deviance in healthcare delivery. Business Horizons. March 2010. 53. 2. 139–148. 10.1016/j.bushor.2009.10.006. 2821100. 20161685.
12. Book: Diane Vaughan. The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, Enlarged Edition. 4 January 2016. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-34696-0. 30–1.
13. Web site: Collins. Glen. Drifting apart: a look at how relationships end. The New York Times. 4 September 2017.
14. Web site: Wilhelm. Maria. Headed for a Painful Breakup? Sociologist Diane Vaughan Discusses the Warning Signs. People. 4 September 2017.
15. News: Streitfeld. David. David Streitfeld. Uncoupling: When A Pair Becomes Two. The Washington Post. 4 September 2017.
16. Web site: Carbino. Jess. Defining the Breakup and Consciously Uncoupling: Paltrow and Martin. Huffington Post. 27 March 2014 . 4 September 2017.