Let the reader decide: A paradigm shift for situation awareness in sociotechnical systems

Abstract

In science and engineering, there is a natural rise and fall of paradigms as progress is made. In this way a new paradigm becomes more established until it gives way to new developments. We think it is legitimate to raise concerns over the status quo and propose new paradigms. This is how science moves forward, but we do recognize that paradigm owners tend to resist change. We contend that distributed situation awareness presents a new paradigm for analyzing and explaining situation awareness in systems, and there is a groundswell of studies that are tipping the balance of evidence in that direction.