Change Laboratory for Forming Coalitions to Prevent Work-Related Deaths: The Zerobito Experience From Brazil

• In Event: Formative Interventions for Justice, Futurity, and Sustainability

Abstract

Objectives
The Change Laboratory (CL) method has been increasingly used as tool to collaboratively develop workplaces for the prevention of occupational accidents in Brazil (Vilela et al., 2020). Interventions have been conducted to prevent children labor (Donatelli et al., 2020), work accidents in railway transport (Lopes et al., 2020), urban cleaning services (Bobadilha, 2020), airport construction (Lopes et al., 2018), and development of labor inspection (Vilela et al., 2018), among others. Despite the important methodological advancements, the high complexity of human activities demands newer tools for forming multilevel coalitions to solve societal problems. The present study aims at presenting a multilevel CL intervention used for forming a coalition of agents in the prevention of work-related deaths in a São Paulo state region.

Theoretical framework
With several layers of complexity, work-related fatal accidents are typical runaway objects: a critical social problem, consequence of multiple activities, diffuse and without well-defined limits. Such objects require the formation of coalitions of the various institutions, sectors and spheres of these multiple activities, seeking their qualitative and radical transformation (Engeström & Sannino, 2020; Vilela, 2021). The fourth generation of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) seeks spaces for dialogue to build trust and collaboration among the diverse activity systems and their agents, crossing professional and administrative boundaries (Sannino, 2020).

Methods and data sources
In the study, we will present the process of creation of a new collaborative tool called Zerobito. This tool was the outcome of a series of CLs interventions. The first intervention took place between 2014 and 2015, producing a new regional-level Workers' Health service, which was consolidated as Expanded Surveillance of work-related accidents, with expansion of the object and articulation with its community (Vilela et al., 2018; Cerveny et al, 2020). In 2020, five workshops inspired in the CL were held with 32 agents from multiple activities to create Zerobito as a tool to facilitate collaboration between the multilevels of activities working in prevention of work accidents in São Paulo State.

Results
The outcome of the CLs interventions was the creation of a new tool designed for the coalition of various agents from the Ministry of Health, Justice, and Labor, at the municipal, regional, and state levels. This tool, called Zerobito (Zero deaths), was planned and implemented in three phases: I) Workshops with the agents of the Extended Surveillance service to develop the organizational flowchart; II) Prototype design; III) Software development. The tool aimed at prompting the communication and collaboration between multilevel actors to identify and take collective actions to prevent work-related deaths. In 2021, the prototype was designed and implemented.
Significance
The study will present the methodological approach and learning outcomes that lead to the formation of Zerobito.

Authors

• Irina Natsumi Hiraoka Moriyama, University of São Paulo
  Presenting Author

• Rodolfo Vilela, University of São Paulo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alessandro da Silva, Workers Health Reference Center of Piracicaba
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel Braatz, Federal University of Sao Carlos
  Non-Presenting Author

• Manoela Lopes, Federal University of Piauí
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sandra Beltrán-Hurtado, University of São Paulo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda Macaia, Environmental Health and Sustainability Association
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marco Pereira Querol
  Non-Presenting Author