Labor accidents and relations of production: A sociological critique of the subjective factors as a hegemonic explanation of the labor accident causality

Abstract

Introduction: The contemporary approach to labor accidents is constituted by a body of reference which analyzes the issue on the subjective level. There is a gap in regional sociological thought regarding its treatment.

Objective: from the analysis of labor accidents as a social fact, we aim to demystify the current analysis which is focused on individual behavior and the human factor.

Method: quantitative research based on the national statistics of occupational accidents reported in Argentina.

Results: the most severe accidents are concentrated in low paid and less qualified jobs and they are concentrated in poor areas.

Discussion: the production of labor accidents, whose tendency is reaffirmed in a specific social group, can only be explained in a sociological way, as a phenomenon which functions according to specific social conditions and as a collective experience.

Conclusion: labor accidents constitute social phenomena. The probability of an individual being exposed to conditions favorable to an accident is determined by labor division, social structure, and the place occupied in the social relationships of production.