Technology, terrorism, and the multiple perspective approach

Abstract

The multiple perspective concepts, developed in 1977, has proven very useful in bridging the gap between analysis or modeling on the one hand, and the real world on the other. By introducing two perspectives to augment the traditional science/engineering based "technical" (or T) perspective, it has been consistently found that each of the three yields insights on complex sociotechnical systems that cannot be obtained with the others. The two perspectives are the "organizational" (or O) perspective and the "personal" (or P) perspective. Applications have ranged from technology assessment to regional planning to the study of industrial catastrophe. The cross-cuing or integration of the three perspectives on a given system provides an enhances basis for decision making. The recent concern with terrorism strongly suggests the value of adding a fourth perspective, one first briefly mentioned by the author in his 1999 book: the "religious/mythological" (or R) perspective. This paper focuses on the need to consider the R perspective in the context of 21/sup st/ century conflict management.