Taking a new view for researching occupational safety in construction: site safety practice

Abstract

The “New View” of occupational safety is gaining increased attention within both the construction industry and its associated academe. With the potential to overcome the current plateau in accident rates and support the further enhancement of occupational safety on sites, the “New View” offers an alternative approach to more traditional command driven safety management and instead takes a sociotechnical perspective, valorising the workers and acknowledging their contributions to the system in the form of adaptability and resilience. Yet empirical research of “New View” thinking and practice within construction is lacking. Meaningful research in this space demands non-positivistic approaches able to reveal nuanced and local insights able to inform and illuminate “New View” practices and the contexts in which they could potentially be implemented on sites. Here, we make a methodological contribution with the aim to advance empirical research in this space. Social practice theory is employed and evaluated as an approach able to make such a useful contribution. Through the exploration and explication of the block of “site safety practice,” we demonstrate the utility of this theoretical approach for “New View” researchers, whilst also making a fundamental contribution to knowledge in the form of insights of the local and situated contexts, in which “New View” thinking could be practically applied.