A brief essay on socio-cultural factors and building safety in the construction sector

Current level of knowledge on the impact of socio-cultural factors on building collapses in the construction sector is limited. Such phenomena are studied mainly as ‘engineering’ problems. Encouragingly, today, there is a growing momentum towards a socio-cultural approach to safety in the sector. The approach, however, focuses only on health and safety management concerns in the context of physical construction. Little or no attention is given to accidents caused by built structures. This essay argues that the principles of health and safety in the construction sector apply to not only those who are engaged in work; they also apply to those who are placed at risk by work activities, including members of the public. Therefore, limiting the impact of socio-cultural factors on safety in the sector to only worker safety obscures the impact of the factors on another vantage area of safety in the sector: the dangers posed by completed structures such as buildings to public health. The essay argues that a sociocultural grounding for building safety/accidents in the construction sector is warranted. A socio-cultural approach to building collapse could be worthwhile, in complementing the engineering focal approach, for identifying pathways to avoidance.