Discussion on Safer Construction Practices

This paper is based on the assumption that people in organizations do not learn 'safety'; rather, they learn safe working practices. Therefore, there are as many safety cultures as there are communities of practice inside an organization contributing to the social construction of safety. Ambiguity plays a central role in this process since consensus and dissensus on what is safety and danger are issue-specific and constantly fluctuating. The analysis of the explanations of the cause of accidents held by two communities of practice - engineers and site managers - sheds light on sense-making processes relevant to the understanding of safety and to the design of a safer organization.