Sherratt, F; Crapper, M; Foster-Smith, L and Walsh, S (2015) Safety and volunteer construction workers. Construction Management and Economics, 33(5-6), pp. 361-374. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
The construction industry is dangerous, with 39 fatalities at work in the UK in 2012/13 and comparable and even larger figures reported worldwide. People also take part in construction on a voluntary basis; most volunteers have limited training and no technical qualification, whilst safety regulation frameworks range from being comparable to professional sectors to zero regulation in some international contexts. Unstructured interviews were undertaken with volunteer construction workers from two areas: those returning from international development projects and those regularly volunteering on UK heritage railways. Taking a social constructionist perspective, data was explored using discourse analysis to illuminate 'safety' within this unique construction 'industry'. Those with engineering or technical backgrounds developed more tangible constructions of safety, around risks and hazards, within their activities, yet volunteers without this experience also acknowledged a wider context of danger. Volunteers on overseas projects developed discourses of 'difference' between safety at home and safety outside the UK, associated with negative practices overseas yet with acceptance of their inevitability as part of the voluntary experience. Further work is proposed to determine whether these insights can contribute to improved safety management within the voluntary construction context.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | developing country; discourse analysis; heritage railways; safety; volunteer |
| Index terms: | fatalities, construction worker, construction industry, qualification, regulation, safety management, developing country, interview, international development project, volunteer |
| Subjects: | development economics, educational resources, health risk and incident analysis, political science, industry analysis, occupational health and safety management, practitioner, strategic management, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Governance, International Construction, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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