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Critical Infrastructures, High Reliability and Their Enemy, Economism
Author(s) -
Roe Emery
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12112
Subject(s) - adversary , reliability (semiconductor) , function (biology) , business , economics , law and economics , computer science , computer security , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology
This Forum contribution explains why economism – a form of bad economics – has become the enemy of reliable critical infrastructures and what must be done to remedy this. The perspective here is critical, but moves beyond critique to recommendation and proposals. The suggestions centre around taking advantage of the unique expertise of reliability professionals in infrastructures to catch big mistakes before they happen in real time. While economists call for greater efficiencies in critical service provision (see especially the long‐standing New Public Management literature), the most underutilized resource we have as a society are these reliability professionals. Without their expertise we would not have the infrastructure stability necessary for markets to function in the first place.