A New Concept of the Production of Industrial Accidents: A Sociological Approach

Abstract

Various commentators have expressed dissatisfaction at the predominant methods of analysing and preventing accidents. An ethnographic study, little used as a method for investigating industrial accident production, was carried out on a French construction site. This produced new insights into how accidents are produced. Working within an actionalist perspective a theoretical model of industrial accident production is built. This model is derived from the sociology of work, its workings are illustrated by reference to our field study and some of the literature. This model ruptures with the dominant means of analysing accident causation and of conceiving accident prevention. The article tentatively suggests that the social relations of work may become a central and profitable focus of future attempts to analyse and prevent industrial accidents.