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When you smell smoke': 'Risk factors' and fire safety in action.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • M. Lloyd
  • Katrina Roen
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/07/2002
<mark>Journal</mark>Health, Risk and Society
Issue number2
Volume4
Number of pages15
Pages (from-to)139-153
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

A neglected way of talking about risk is to focus on one of its correlates, 'safety'. This study examines how fire-safety knowledge is put into action. We are concerned with how knowledge of household fire 'risk factors' may, or may not, gain a concrete existence in the interactions between firefighters and householders. Using a 'translation' model loosely derived from Actor-Network-Theory, we show the complexity of the social interactions that constitute safety in action. The aim is not to critique the 'risk factors' approach and its epidemiological underpinnings; nevertheless, the implication is that proponents of the 'risk factors' approach need to understand the interactions where risk and safety are socially embedded, for this is where they gain their life.

Bibliographic note

RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Social Work and Social Policy & Administration