Social norms approach

The sociocultural model of prevention, probably the dominant approach in the United States, posits that social norms directly influence substance use. 

This chapter draws heavily on chapter 3 of my Cement of Society (Cambridge University Press, 1989). A useful empirical survey is Robert Edgerton s Rules, Exceptions and the Social Order (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1985). An alternative approach, with more emphasis on the cognitive role of norms, is Francesca Cancian s What Are Norms (Cambridge Uni-... 

It is perhaps reassuring to boldly state and accept that safety culture can t be measured, and more fundamentally neither can safety itself. This relieves us of the need to develop ever more complex measures of safety, more convoluted forms and inspection sheets, more detailed policies and procedures, and the bureaucracy that often sits alongside such paper-based approaches that reflect normative concepts of safety culture that don t really work in practice. Instead, this version of safety culture enables us to better prioritise the individual and social aspects that are inherently involved. How people understand safety is important how it is developed, associated and shared by those interacting in the work environment, what they consider significant in their actions and interactions. But we must remain mindful of the fact that this is not something that can be measured either. It is people that contribute and ultimately create the changeable and complicated version of safety culture in practice found on our construction sites. 

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