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Social-material aspect of navigation technology: using structural topic models to identify the causes of ship accidents (1973–2018)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2021

Yang Chen ,
Zhenghao Liu Open the ORCID record for Zhenghao Liu [Opens in a new window] ,
Han Zhou ,
Jian Zheng Open the ORCID record for Jian Zheng [Opens in a new window]  and
Likun Wang
Yang Chen
Affiliation:
College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.
Zhenghao Liu
Affiliation:
College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.
Han Zhou
Affiliation:
iFLYTEK Co., Ltd., Hefei, China
Jian Zheng
Affiliation:
College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.
Likun Wang*
Affiliation:
College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: 77912463@qq.com.
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Abstract

What are the major factors contributing to ship accidents, and how do these factors evolve in the long term? This study addresses these two questions by leveraging an unsupervised machine learning method named structural topic modelling to identify the causes of ship accidents. The study analysed 2,341 task errors manually collected from 441 reports issued by four government agencies covering a 45-year time span. The results show that the structure of causes of ship accidents remained essentially the same during this period. This highlights the social-material aspect of navigation technology, indicating that the use of advanced technology may not necessarily lead to safer navigation practices, and the interaction between the technology and human agency must be focused on in the bridge management context. Additionally, the computer-assisted textual data analysis highlights pilot-related factors, which might be rooted in the unsupervised and difficult-to-verify handover procedures between pilots and captains, thereby underlining the importance of appropriate piloting regulations.

Keywords

structural topic modelmaritime safetysocial materialismhuman-related factorstechnology
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 35 - 56
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Institute of Navigation

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