This open access book gathers authors from a wide range of social-scientific and engineering
disciplines to review challenges from their respective fields that arise from the processes of
social and technological transformation taking place worldwide. The result is a much-needed
collection of knowledge about the integration of social organizational and technical
challenges that need to be tackled to uphold safety in the digital age. The contributors whose
work features in this book help their readers to navigate the massive increase in the
capability to generate and use data in developing algorithms intended for automation of work
machine learning and next-generation artificial intelligence and the blockchain technology
already in such extensive use in real-world organizations. This book deals with such issues as:
· How can high-risk and safety-critical systems be affected by these developments in terms of
their activities their organization management and regulation? · What are the sociotechnical
challenges of the proliferation of big data algorithmic influence and cyber-security
challenges in health care transport energy production distribution and production of goods?
Understanding the ways these systems operate in the rapidly changing digital context has become
a core issue for academic researchers and other experts in safety science security and
critical-infrastructure protection. The research presented here offers a lens through which the
reader can grasp the way such systems evolve and the implications for safety-an increasingly
multidisciplinary challenge that this book does not shrink from addressing.
