Life and Death at Work: Industrial Accidents as a Case of Socially Produced Error

329 Pages·1991·8.63 MB·English

by  Tom Dwyer (auth.)

Life and Death
at Work
Industrial Accidents as a
Case of Socially
Produced Error
PLENUM STUDIES IN WORK AND INDUSTRY
Series Editors:
lvar Berg, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
and Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
WORK AND INDUSTRY
Structures, Markets, and Processes
Arne L. I<alleberg and Ivar Berg
THE BUREAUCRATIC LABOR MARKET
The Case of the Federal Ovil Service
Thomas A. DiPrete
ENRICHING BUSINESS ETHICS
Edited by Clarence C. Walton
ENSURING MINORITY SUCCESS IN CORPORATE MANAGEMENT
Edited by Donna E. Thompson and Nancy DiTomaso
INDUSTRIES, FIRMS, AND JOBS
Sociological and Economic Approaches
Edited by George Farkas and Paula England
LIFE AND DEATH AT WORK
Industrial Accidents as a Case of Socially Produced Error
Tom Dwyer
MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT
Longitudinal Research
Edited by Adele Eskeles Gottfried and Allan W. Gottfried
THE STATE AND THE LABOR MARKET
Edited by Samuel Rosenberg
WORKERS, MANAGERS, AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
Emerging Patterns of Labor Relations
Edited by Daniel B. Cornfield
A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each
new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further
information please contact the publisher.
Life and Death
at Work
Industrial Accidents as a
Case of Socially
Produced Error
Tom Dwyer
Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
L1brary of Congreea Catalog1ng-1n-Publ1cat1on Data
Dwyer, To•.
L1fe and daath at work : 1ndustr1al acc1dants as a casa of
soclally produced error 1 Tol Dwyar.
p.' c1. -- <Plenu• studlas In work and lndustry>
Includas b1bllographlcal refarencas and Index.
ISBN 978-1-4899-0608-3 ISBN 978-1-4899-0606-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0606-9
1. Industrial accldents. 2. Industrial safety. I. Tltla.
II. Sarles.
HD7262.088 1991
363. 11' 1--dc20 91-22166
CIP
Cover illustration: Black-and-white reproduction of Diagonale by Wassily Kandinsky,
Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany. Copyright 1991 ARS, N.Y.I ADAGP.
ISBN 978-1-4899-0608-3
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1991
Ali rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To Cassia
Preface
This book benefited from the financial support of a French Government
scholarship between 1976 and 1978. It sponsored a doctoral thesis in
which initial theoretical, empirical, and historical reflections on acci
dents were developed and written while I was a student at the Ecole des
Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. The New Zealand Depart
ment of Labour funded a study on industrial accidents and night work
during 1979-80. In 1982-83, the award of a postdoctoral fellowship by
the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) permitted a first version of
this book to be finished. In the summer of 1986-87 the Funda~ao de
a
Amparo Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) and the Labora
toire d'Ergonomie et de Neurophysiologie du Travail of the Centre Na
tional des Arts et Metiers joined forces to fund a stay in Paris where the
second draft of this book was presented in a special doctoral seminar
series. The third draft was completed during a 1988 research leave
granted by the Conjunto de Ciencia Politica of the Universidade Es
tadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). On a further research leave from the
same unit, and thanks to a postdoctoral fellowship from the Brazilian
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnol6gico
(CNPq), final redrafting was carried out between August and October
1990 when I was a visiting fellow in the Science, Technology, and Society
Program at Cornell University. I am deeply grateful to these institutions
for their generosity.
To carry out research such as this, much more than financial sup
port is necessary. Various trade unions affiliated with the New Zealand
Federation of Labour, as well as the New Zealand Employers' Federation
and the New Zealand Manufacturers' Association, all opened doors to
facilitate access to research sites. In France a similar role was played by
the Parisian section of the Organisme Professionnel de Prevention du
vii
viii Preface
Batiment et des Travaux Publics (OPPBTP) and the construction and
factory inspectors' sections of the Confederation Fran~aise du Travail
(CFDT).
Once companies had agreed to research being conducted, and once
introduced into workplaces, I observed work, examined company statis
tics and records, and conducted many semistructured interviews. Work
ers, unionists, foremen, managers, medical specialists, ergonomists,
and others spared their time to talk with me. Their judgments, reflec
tions, and perceptions provide crucial raw material for this book. How
ever, another side of my contact with many of these people left a pro
found impression: their harsh judgments of, indignation at, and
emotional reactions to their exposure to risks that others, frequently
more privileged, did not experience. A strong impression was also left
by others, especially those who in positions of responsibility suffered
genuine moral dilemmas as they managed work in ways that they knew
would lead to accidents. The efforts of both parties to cover up and
sublimate the question and their seemingly paradoxical eagerness to talk
about it provided a constant stimulus to push forward with research and
reflection. Thus, the information these people provided, the warmth
with which they received me, and the manner in which they opened up
their hearts were important ingredients of this research process. Many
safety professionals and government employees outside of the research
sites have also generously given of their time and wisdom in trying to
help me better understand their worlds.
Over the years a number of people, milieus, and events have been
crucial to the development of my intellectual life and through this have
played a role in shaping this book. My earliest research into accidents
reflected the combined input of three teachers at Victoria University
(New Zealand): Stephen Mugford, my first sociology teacher; Jan Pouw
er, my first theory teacher; and Allan Levett, my first teacher of so
ciological theory.
This book is made up of six chapters, each of which was written at a
different point in time and space. The influence of an intellectual milieu
such as that provided by Paris or Sao Paulo is something that almost by a
process of osmosis penetrates and constantly reshapes one's views of
social theory and of the world. Also, crucial events, such as the explo
sion of the space shuttle Challenger, would call for modifications to
certain theoretical notions that I had thought already "fully developed."
The shape of a final text has much to do with such influences.
The inputs of certain individuals have also left their marks; to cite
some by name: Plenum Series Editors Arne Kalleberg and Ivar Berg,
David Buxton, Adrian Raftery, Maurice Godelier, Bill Willmott, Sami
Preface ix
Dassa, Dan Berman, Bob Gidlow, Katy Richmond, and especially Geoff
Fougere and Allan Levett. These people have, either by reading drafts,
discussing ideas, or pointing in certain directions, contributed to the
book. Gratitude that goes back to a distant past when Raphael Samuel
and Maxine Berg in England gave some crucial dues and support in my
first primitive attempts to understand the history of accidents must also
be expressed.
The initial ideas that gave rise to this book were brought together in
a doctoral thesis that was defended in a public "trial by jury" in Paris in
December 1978. M. Jacques Lautman suggested that future research be
conducted in more controlled environments than those studied in my
research of the construction sector. This suggestion influenced the
shape of future testing of the theory. M. Alain Wisner, who would later
kindly provide further guidance and support, developed arguments that
would force me to be more attentive to the work that other disciplines,
and in particular ergonomics, were doing in the field. On that same day
a number of points of ongoing debate with my thesis supervisor, Alain
Touraine, would be aired. Over the years, M. Touraine has been both
patient and generous in his encouragement of this research. His remark
able sociological intuition has helped push the research forward in new
directions and his perceptive critical comments have served to guide me
out of many a theoretical jungle.
Should I appear to the reader to have flawed reasoning, or to be lost
or without direction, the responsibility is no one's other than my own.
ToM DWYER
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Life and Death at Work: Three Insights, One Context . . . . . . . . . . 2
Changing Images of Work Accidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A "Near Miss'' Accident: The Original Motivation
for Sociological Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Casting of a Shadow: The Distance between Emergent
Sociological and Modern Approaches to Safety . . . . . . . . . 4
A Case of Socially Produced Error: Industrial Accidents . . . . . . . . 4
Accidents as a Social Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Relationships between Research Methods and Theory
Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1
From Sin to Social Peace: The Origins of the Modem
Treatments of Industrial Accidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Birth of the Modem Notion of Industrial Accidents . . . . . . . . 14
The Children's Employment Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Birth of Safety Engineering: Employers, Workers,
and the Davy Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Six Effects of Technically Conceived Safety Instruments . . . . 21
A Turning Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The Victory of the Industrial Capitalist Model
of Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Accident Prevention as Political Rationality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Compensation for Accidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
xi