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About Annual Meeting
In an age that is arguably defined by liability and risk management strategies, occupational safety has become an important field to understand and manage. However, all too often, failure to abide by safety regulations in occupational safety research is treated as an individualized or structural issue and actions are removed from the social context. These approaches have been informed largely by psychological and management literature (Mullen 2004), which have failed to understand occupational safety as a social issue. Although a structural approach to safety within organizations is necessary, ensuring adequate policy and organizational supports are in place, in order for these structural influences to be effective, there must be an understanding of the profound social components of safety behaviour. In this paper I argue that in order for safety policies to be effective, they must be built based on an appreciation and understanding of not just structural level influences or individual-actor behaviour, but the social process that mediates the two. Concepts associated with social capital, such as trust, values, and networks shape the uptake of safety institutions within work organizations, and are crucial elements that are often left uninterrogated. Understanding these processes is key to creating self-sustaining and viable occupational safety cultures.