Attributions of Danger and Responses to Risk Among Logging Contractors in British Columbia's Southern Interior: Implications for Accident Prevention in the Forest Industry

Abstract

Logging industry fatalities recently became a focus for policy change in British Columbia. Through re-analysis of ethnographic data collected in 2001–2002 this chapter aims to investigate logging contractors’ attitudes toward workplace danger and to comment on the likelihood of success of the proposed policy changes. The contractors attributed workplace danger to the forest environment and to human error, which shaped their behavior and their attitudes toward taking risks. The contractors accepted the risk of physical harm rather than face almost certain economic loss. The proposed policy changes do not address the conditions that promoted this acceptance.

Citation

Patterson, P.B. (2007), "Attributions of Danger and Responses to Risk Among Logging Contractors in British Columbia's Southern Interior: Implications for Accident Prevention in the Forest Industry", Wood, D.C. (Ed.) The Economics of Health and Wellness: Anthropological Perspectives (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 26), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 103-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-1281(07)26005-6