How to get a feel for the (unknown) real? – Emergency exercises and the production of synthetic experience
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Markus Jenki
Centre for Security and Society University of Freiburg Germany
markus.jenki@css.uni-freiburg.de
Author(s):
Sabine Blum1 and Nils Ellebrecht2
1Centre For Security And Society University Of Freiburg, Sabine.Blum@Soziologie.Uni-Freiburg.De, DEU
2Centre For Security And Society University Of Freiburg, Nils.Ellebrecht@Soziologie.Uni-Freiburg.De, DEU
Safety concepts for railway tunnels deal with low probability-high consequence scenarios. They combine various methods and technologies, tools, measures and people, in order to envision, prevent and prepare for coping with potential future tunnel emergencies. As the lecture will argue, simulation exercises of different types and scales – always dedicated to allow participants to get a feel for the real – play a key role in this undertaking. When looked at more closely, though, answers to the question of how (and why) to achieve this goal are far less straightforward than the oft-heard call for “realism” amongst planners and practitioners might suggest.
In fact, as the presentation will argue by drawing on empirical examples, the “feel” for the real sought for in simulation exercises, has to be
1. understood in cognitive, physical and affective terms
2. analyzed by differentiating between different groups of actors, participating in different roles and functions, bringing in different organizational backgrounds and expectations.
Emergency exercises can be conceptualized in terms of a “doubling of reality” (Luhmann) which allows for observations and experiences otherwise not available to participants as well as observers. They promise to render present and offer a chance to familiarize oneself with emergency scenarios exceeding routine processes, know-how and skills so as not to be overwhelmed and unprepared should a disastrous event resembling them ever become real. The problem, though, is not only that first-hand experience to draw from is scarce and thus the making of exercises amounts to a process of invention. What is more, it is by no means clear whether experts do have the same things in mind, when discussing the ‘realism’ vs ‘artificiality’ of such a scenario. Or when reflecting on the specific value and importance of (synthetic) experiences generated by staging and enacting, or else, analytically probing into it.
The lecture will zoom in on heterogeneous (im)material means and dispositions that different actors mobilize and display in order to produce and/or undergo ‘realistic’ synthetic experiences. Empirical material drawn from interviews, documentation and ethnographic observations during different phases of the exercise cycle will be used to illustrate how different dimensions of ‘realism’ are thereby addressed and ‘enhanced’. The overall aim is to get a better understanding of the multifaceted character of ‘realism’ and the aspired ‘feel for the real’ by means of simulation exercises.
On the Epistemology of Crises and Disasters