FutureMedia provides a comprehensive collection of Professor Andrew Hopkins’ thought-provoking observations and proposals, from his bestselling books to his presentations, video workshops and free resources. Available as an instant digital download or licenced for use across your company intranet.

Andrew Hopkins, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University. A member of the select group of global experts featured in the RAND Report on “Human and Organizational Factors in Major Accident Prevention.” Adviser to the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on Incident Investigation. Deepwater Horizon and BP Texas City. First non-European to receive the European Process Safety Award.

Consultant / presenter to numerous companies internationally and author of books and papers analyzing the human and organizational factors of process safety incidents.

“Andrew Hopkins is a consummate storyteller as well as being an internationally known expert on the breakdown of hazardous socio-technical systems. I believe that only stories such as are told here can capture the subtle influences of organisational culture and embrace the complex interactions between causes and conditions.” Professor James Reason

What inspires Professor Hopkins?

I write because I have something to say about these accidents that no one else is saying. When I sat down to write the book on the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout of 2010, at least a dozen other authors had already beaten me to. But not one of their books dealt with the organisational causes of the accident. My book therefore filled a gap. I am baffled by this gap. What I am doing is applied sociology, but it seems that few other sociologists are interested in applying themselves in this way.

What keeps me going?

I enjoy what I do. I am fascinated by the way organisations work and the way they fail and I get great satisfaction thinking and writing about these things.

A reviewer said about my Moura book that it had the ”right balance of quiet outrage and scholarly thoroughness”. As an academic, I cannot imagine a greater complement.

— Professor Andrew Hopkins