Rethinking the role of social theory in socio-technical analysis: a critical realist approach to aircraft maintenance

Based on empirical research within the aviation industry we have come to some surprising and sometimes counterintuitive conclusions concerning aircraft maintenance that are relevant for the discussion of social theory and its application towards the explanation and management of socio-technical systems. In this article, the human role in the activity of aircraft maintenance is taken as an example to illustrate the need for critical discussions on social theory in order to better understand safety in socio-technical systems This challenges us to consider the theoretical basis related to how we currently approach the human factor in management of such systems. We propose in the article that Roy Bhaskars' book The possibility of naturalism-a philosophical critique of the contemporary human sciences (1979) delivers a compelling social theory from which follows a social ontology of the objects of socio-technical systems that is a necessary precursor to developing applied models and empirical accounts of socio-technical systems.