A collection of us are writing our next book Poetics and Risk, Feeling Into Being at the moment and we expect it to be released early next year. The book is about the importance of language in risk and being sensitised to making meaning (semiosis).

Our contributors to the book are from: Australia, Poland, Austria, Russia, UK, USA and Canada. It will be a colourful book where each author tells their stories in risk in a Poetic way.

Poetics is about acts of creativity, innovation, discovery and bringing into being through text (as words, para-linguistics and persons-as-text). You can learn more about Poetics here: https://safetyrisk.net/understanding-poetics-and-risk/

Here is the podcast series on Poetics: https://safetyrisk.net/poetics-and-risk/

Here is a selection of some of the books you can read about Poetics (my favourites are those underlined):

• Armstrong, I., (1993)  Victorian Poetry, Poetry, Poetics and Politics.   New York.
• Bachelard, G., (1964) The Poetics of Space. Beacon Books. Boston.
• Bailes, S., (2011) Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure. Routledge. London.
• Berque, A., (2019) Poetics of the Earth, Natural History and Human History. London.
• Bok, C., (2002) Pataphysics, The Poetics of an Imaginary Science.  Northwestern University Press.
• Brooke Gildea, (2018)  A Poetics of the Self, Ricœur’s Philosophy of the Will and Living Metaphor as Creative Praxis Ricœur Studies, Vol 9, No 2 (2018), pp. 90-103.
• Brumer, A., (2007) The Poetics of Golf. University of Nebraska. London.
• Bueti, F., (2023) Critical Poetics of Feminist Refusals, Voicing Dissent Across Differences. London.
• Chambers, R., (2015) An Atmospherics of the City, Baudelaire and the Poetics of Noise. Fordham Uni Press. New York.
• Coëgnarts, M., and Kravanja, P., (2012) Towards an Embodied Poetics of Cinema: The Metaphoric Construction of Abstract Meaning in Film. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media Issue 4, Winter 2012.
• Cotrupti, C., (2000) Northrop Frye and the Poetics of Process. University of Toronto Press. Toronto.
• Even-Zohar, I., and Hrushovski, B., (Eds.) (1978)  Papers of Poetics and Semiotics. Tel Aviv.
• Gibbs, R., (1994) The Poetics of Mind, Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge University Press London.
• Glissant, E., (2010) Poetics of Relation. University of Muchigan Press. Ann Arbor.
• Guirat, M., (ed.) (2018) Politics and Poetics of Belonging. Cambridge Scholars Publishing London.
• Halliwell, S., (Trans) (1995) Aristotle Poetics.  Harvard Uni Press.  Cambridge Massachusetts.
• Hampton, T., (2019) Bob Dylan’s Poetics, How the Songs Work. Zone Books.  New York.
• Hollingsworth, C., (2001) Poetics of the Hive, The Insect Metaphor in Literature. University of Iowa Press. Iowa City.
• Hemer, O., Frykman. M., and Ristilammi, P., (eds.) (2020) Conviviality at the Crossroads, The Poetics and Politics of Everyday Encounters. Sweden.
• Hersfeld, M., (1997) Cultural Intimacy, Social Poetics and the Real Life of States, Societies, and Institutions.   London.
• Jakobus, M., (2005) The Poetics of Psychoanalysis, In the Wake of Klein. London.
• Johnson, J., (2018) Trouble Songs. A Musicological Poetics. Punctum Books. London.
• Karp, I., and Lavine, S., (1990)  Exhibiting Cultures, The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington.
• Lee, L., (2001) A Poetics for Screenwriters. University of Texas. Austin.
• Lefebvre, N., and Lewis, S., (2001) Poetics of Work. Transit Books. Oaklands.
• Lewis, G., (2013) Quantum Poetics. Bloodaxe Books. LOndon.
• McLeod, N., (2014) Indigenous Poetics in Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
• Meletinsky E., (2000) The Poetics of Myth. London.
• Nagy, G., (1990)  Greek Mythology and Poetics. Cornell University Press. Ithica.
• Nicholls, M., (2010) Radical Affections : Essays on the Poetics of Outside. The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa.
• Nowak, M., (2020) Social Poetics. Coffee House Press Minneapolis.
• Panagia, D., (2006) The Poetics of Political Thinking. Duke University. London.
• Pelias, R., (2011) Leaning, A Poetics of Personal Relations. Lefty Coast Press.  Walnut Creek CA.
• Perloff, M., (2024)  Differentials, Poetry, Poetics, Pedagogy. University of Alabama Press. Tuscaloosa
• Phillips, S., (2010) The Poetics of the Everyday, Creative Repetition in Modern American Verse. Columbia Uni Press. New York.
• Richter, S., (2010) A History of Poetics, German Scholary Aesthetics and Poetics in International Context, 1770-1960. Gruyter, Berlin.
• Sakellaridou, I., (2001) Mario Botta Architectural Poetics. Thames and Hudson. London.
• Shilo, O., (2022)  Beyond Death in The Oresteia, A Poetics, Ethics, and Politics.  Cambridge Uni Press.
• Sinding, M., (2014) Body of Vision, Northop Frye and The Poetics of Mind. University of Toronto Press. London.
• Stewart, K., (1996) A Space on the Side of the Road. Cultural Poetics in an ‘Other’ America.    New York.
• Turner, L., (2021) Poetics of Deconstruction, On the Threshold of Differences. Bloomsbury London.
• Wainright, J., (1989) Poetivities, Guiding Creative Poetic Expression Succesfully in the Elementary Grades. Good Apple. Carthage.
• Werning, S., (2021) Making Games. The Politics and Poetics of Game Creation Tools.   London.
• Wortham, S., (2013) The Poetics of Sleep, From Aristotle to Nancy. London.
• Wright, E., (1999) Speaking Desires can be Dangerous, The Poetics of the Unconscious. Polity Press. London.

Why do Poetics matter to safety?

One of the things we focus on in SPOR is sensitivity and sense making in language, discourse and Discourse. We study this in our module on Poetics (https://cllr.com.au/product/poetics-flyer-module-22/) and Semiotics (https://cllr.com.au/product/advanced-semiotics-masterclass-module-19/).

Understanding language, Linguistics and para-linguistics is essential to messaging, influencing and decision-making. If your messaging is not working, there’s a reason why.

None of this is studied or conscious to the industry of safety. This is often why Safety is so good at speaking nonsense (https://safetyrisk.net/more-nonsense-from-the-ehs-insight-zero-injury-cultures/) and gobbledygook (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-experts-in-speaking-nonsense-to-people/) to people.

A friend recently did a search using AI for the common words, nouns, verbs, metaphors and slogans of safety and what do you think was the result? No-one should be surprised at what the top 15 concepts are in safety:

1. Risk Assessment
2. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
3. Safety Culture
4. Hazard Communication
5. Emergency Preparedness
6. Incident Reporting
7. Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS)
8. Root Cause Analysis
9. Hierarchy of Controls
10. Safety Audit
11. Near Miss
12. Safety Data Sheet (SDS)
13. Lockout/Tagout
14. Workplace Ergonomics
15. Confined Space

The most common verbs in risk and safety are (also identified by AI): Preventative Action, Identify, Assess, Control, Eliminate, Minimise, Manage, Plan, Maintain, Monitor, Train, Supervise, Legal/Procedural, Ensure, Comply (with), Report, Investigate, Review, Consult, Establish, Implement, Enforce, Reactive/Corrective, Correct, Rectify, Respond, Isolate, Secure, General Responsibilities, Provide, Instruct, Authorise, Document, Verify.

What is most telling is the absence of all the language that matters to SPoR: ‘learning’, ‘care’, ‘trust’, ‘helping’, ‘ethics’, ‘persons’ or ‘listening’.

But you don’t need to use AI to find out what ‘Safety talk’ is about. Just have a look at these glossaries and do a search:

None of this should be any surprise. If you want to know about safety culture, run a language audit. You can do the same with any of the so called ‘new view’ safety stuff and it simply shows that its language and slogans support a traditional view of safety: performance, safety, systems, engineering etc.

If you want to study the Poetics of Risk then you can apply for coaching or studies here: admin@spor.com.au

If you want to improve your messaging and influencing in safety culture then knowing more about Poetics, Semiotics and The Social Psychology of Risk is essential for learning about language and meaning. In such learning one will acquire a new methodology and positive methods to invoke safety culture change.

If you want to read a case study of such positive change you can download our book for free: It Works, A New Approach to Risk and Safety

In the book you will read a case study of how a large global organisation adopted SPoR methods and changed its safety culture.