Cindynics

As of Summer 2006, the European Institute of Cindynics joined the IMdR-SDF ( Institut pour la Maîtrise des Risques et la Sûreté de Fonctionnement ) to form the present IMdR ( Institut pour la Maîtrise des Risques - Sûreté de fonctionnement - Management - Cindyniques )
Thus, gathering the competences of both associations, the IMdR is a place of exchanges in matter of risks mastering from a politic and strategic vision down to scientific tools, concrete and daily.

What is cindynics?

Cindynics (from greek κίνδυνος / kíndunos, danger) gathers sciences devoted to risk study. It is also called « danger science ». Their main concerns are industrial risks and more specifically major risks.

A dangerous situation is a situation occurring within a system where a vulnerable target happens to be exposed to one or several dangers whose effects are not always immediate or apparent.

The cindynic approach endeavours to identify situations vulnerability in order to reduce it from the very beginning and thus to limit the risks possibly affecting various stakes (human, material, economic, environmental,…)

The word « situation » is the cindynics founding concept . In order to detect such situations the technical is of course essential;besides the dynamics of the origin of many a system dysfunctionment shows that each actor (or actor group) beheavioural factor plays a major role at every level of the organizationnal chain. It has in fact been established that in every organization, and particularly in complex systems, internal actors networks are created, which exchange data, informations, interact. Now, when organizations obey rules, structures and technics, networks share or oppone values which command the beheaviour of individuals and organizations. Such an observation has lead to take into account new characteristics of actors networks beheaviour such as purposes, values, rules (ethics) which are fully part of any living organization operation.

These new characteristics are added to the traditionnal risk approach of likelihood (probability) and gravity/vulnerability.

In addition to the usual description of technical dangers , cindynics allows to focus on potential dangers which are not directly perceptible.

A lecture grid of potentially dangerous situations is proposed , called “danger hyperspace” which includes five qualifiers :

Purposes , fundamental objectives pursued, eventually completed by quantitative objectives,
Reference values, in name of which a situation will be judged good or evil,
Laws, rules and standards, being compulsory or free,
Facts and data, repeated observations to lean upon,

Representations and models using facts and data for a given action.

Besides, as technical systems evolve with time, cindynicians are lead to consider different periods of the system under study. Through this description grid, the cindynic approach consists in analysing discrepancies which affect each actors group beheaviour and interactions between groups which possibly create dangerous situations.
On the contrary, the research of consistency allows the system under study to find an equilibrium obtained by involvement of each actor regulations and interactions.

The cindynic approach allows to describe situations in three manners:

Macroscopic organization description ,
Inadequacies (inconsistancies) statement at each actor group level as well as disagreement points between various actor groups,
Temporal approach to detect positive or negative evolutions of actors or organizations in order to be prepared to crisis situations.

The cindynic approach leaning on dangerous situation concept allows to detect and link danger modelling efforts in order to improve prevention techniques.
It also allows to study an organization operation and deduce positive situations generated by interactions between actors groups.
It hence provides a strategic tool of risks and opportunities mastering to an entity who wishes a long term vision on its activity development.

Le Groupe de Travail et de Réflexion (GTR) cindyniques de l’IMdR

Dernière modification : 07/08/2018