Dr. Ron Westrum, Ph.D. - A Talk on Hidden Events

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ron Westrum to the Lounge for an exciting discussion of Hidden Events. Here's how Dr. Westrum describes his talk:

One of the under-served areas in sociology is the "Sociology of Knowledge." The sociology of knowledge is the exploration of the sociology of what we know and why we know it. This also includes, of course, a sociology of ignorance or the study of things that we ought to know but don't. My work on Hidden Events has been a life-long effort to peer into various things that, at least at one time, were in the shadows. While it is easy to think that where there is smoke, there is likely to be fire, and the reverse idea that if there is fire, there must be smoke. However, real life shows that both of these ideas are debatable, and taken seriously, they also may lull us into a false sense of security. Hidden things may be dangerous, and to assume we would know about them puts us in peril.

I got into this area of study originally from a fascination about creatures such as "the abominable snowman" and the sea-serpent. Because of my interest, I began to study how science deals with "impossible animals." This led to reading a book on sea-serpents, and getting to know the world expert on impossible creatures, Bernard Heuvelmans. My first contact with him was a letter to him detailing many errors I found in his large treatise on sea-serpents. We became good friends. Later, taking a course on forensic medicine, I became acquainted with the Battered Child Syndrome. This led to a study on the origins of the "battered child syndrome," and the pioneer researchers. My really strong interest, however, was UFOs. What was the truth of UFOs? I read everything I could, and did much field research on the subject. And eventually I began to plot the social dynamics of knowledge about abduction events. I also looked into phenomena such as ball lighting, spontaneous human combustion, and certain kinds of psychic events.

Along the way, I realized that scientists (natural and physical) often slighted these phenomena because of the "fallacy of centrality." This is the fallacy that if you consider yourself as an expert on some area, "you would know" the dark corners of the subject. A large body of social research into the nature of knowledge, however, suggests the reverse: Something contrary to ordinary experience may be hidden by ignorance or deception. Such things are Hidden Events, widely experienced (perhaps) but carefully covered up. An everyday example is serial child abusers, who are often good at covering their tracks, and killer nurses in hospitals, who know how to conceal the deaths they cause. A substantial file in my office carries newspaper articles on what might be called "pedophile priests."

And scientists' ignorance can put us all at risk, as happened with early suppression of data about the "Ozone Hole." Concerning UFOs we face immense risks if we fail to recognize the signs of early of alien surveillance and tampering. Are UFOs and alien abductions something we need to pay attention to? How do we get our information about such things? I have delved into this in great detail and want to talk about what I have found.

Please join us as we discuss this fascinating approach to complexity.

Bio
Ron Westrum is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University, where he has taught for fifty years. Dr. Westrum has a degree in Social Relations from Harvard University (with Honors). He also has a Master of Sociology degree and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago. His speciality is the social dynamics of organizations, and the sociology of technology, on both of which he has written textbooks. His monograph on the Sidewinder missile team at China Lake is in its fourth printing. Dr. Westrum has spent a substantial portion of his life on issues related to aviation and system safety. This got him into the process of studying the flow of information and the influence of corporate cultures on information flow. He is the originator of the three-way classification of organizational cultures as "pathological, bureaucratic, and generative." This classification is now being used across the world. His hobbies are collecting old books and drafting instruments. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.