Sherratt, F; Farrell, P and Noble, R (2012) Inconsistent, incomplete and incidental: Site safety culture from a constructionist perspective. In: Smith, S D (ed.) Proceedings of 28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2012, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
Safety culture is a common concept within both academia and industry, where large UK contractors have made significant efforts to improve the safety culture and consequently the safety of their sites. Although from either perspective, 'safety culture' itself is not yet fully emergent. Academic research has sought to identify and measure safety culture on sites, however such a quantification of culture is something that may not ultimately be possible. Grounded in social constructionism, this study instead sought to explore and examine safety culture in practice. This epistemology enabled the exploration of culture through the discursive patterns and constructional frameworks that surround safety on sites, themselves constructed through shared social practices and resources. Data was collected from five UK construction projects, all over
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | discourse analysis; safety; safety culture; social constructionism |
| Index terms: | epistemology, social practice, academia, construction project, exploration, safety culture, quantification |
| Subjects: | educational institutions, measurement and scaling, health safety and environment, social theory, production management, environmental resource management, knowledge theory |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Project Management, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here