Decentering sensemaking: The Mann Gulch disaster revisited

Abstract

Despite previous efforts to deal with the ontological split between human subjects and reality, sensemaking has remained human-centered. We argue that human-centered sensemaking risks omitting constitutive elements of reality. To escape the ontological split, we decenter sensemaking and thus extend it in such a way that it allows seemingly unrelated and independent humans and nonhumans to become connected and interdependent with what is made sense of. Doing so allows us to demonstrate how a decentered understanding of reality can produce a radically different understanding of research phenomena. As a means to show the consequences of a decentered sensemaking, we revisit the Mann Gulch disaster and show that not all disasters can be avoided by better sensemaking or good management.