Unpacking Construction Site Safety

Safety is something that seems to be very simple but it is actually deceptively complicated, and so it is perhaps unsurprising that we are still struggling to get it right in the construction industry. There is considerable variance in how people position safety within their working lives; it is not embedded in construction practice but often treated as an add–on to the work of the construction site, with significant differences in how ‘safety’ is talked about by corporate management, site supervisors and site operatives. So for those who manage safety on site, areas of concern, confusion and even potential conflict can arise when trying to implement management systems and more complex safety–culture programmes. Unpacking Construction Site Safety helps academics and construction practitioners develop better knowledge and understanding of the site context for construction safety; it places safety firmly within the social context of construction site work practice, and explores how ‘safety practice’ fits within this environment and how such practice is perceived by those who work with it every day. This increased awareness of the contextual complexities of safety on site will help improve the design of safety management systems and interventions which need to operate within incoherent, contradictory and potentially hostile site environments and give them greater potential to succeed. By exploring safety from this fresh perspective, the author examines how useful the concept of safety culture actually is to the development of effective management interventions. The academic approach taken in this book is unique; although regulations, management systems and safety culture are all topics for investigation, they are not considered as the inevitable means to their own ends. Rather they are critically appraised within the realities of the sites, including the potential for their ineffectiveness, providing new insights and information to the audience, and assist in a more informed development of new approaches in practice. Aimed at safety and construction management practitioners as well as academics, the book prioritises practice. Research findings are presented with the intention of informing and helping to develop interventions with a better understanding of the construction site context.

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Preface

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Construction Site Contexts

3.0 Safety and Society

4.0 Safety in Construction

5.0 Just a Bit Unsafe?

6.0 Safety vs Work and Work vs Safety

7.0 Engagement and Enforcement

8.0 Counting Down to Zero

9.0 Constructing Safety on Sites

10.0 Reflections

Index

Fred Sherratt PhD MCIOB C.BuildE MCABE FHEA has worked in the UK construction industry for over 13 years, starting as a site secretary and working up through the ranks, via the planning function, to site management. She is now a researcher and Senior Lecturer in Construction Management at Anglia Ruskin University.