CAUSE AND BLAME - SOCIOTECHNICAL INNOVATI ON AND MORAL JUDGMENT AS REGARDS ACCIDENTS IN THE WORKPLACE

This article analyzes the processes of causal attribution in the case of an accident in industrial contexts. It is based on a ethnographic s urvey carried out on several actors involved in this type of incident : inspectors, engineers, technicians, magistrates. It indicates a dist inction between the moral attitude, centered around the responsibility of the accident, and socio-technical innovation which is concerned by the non-reoccurrence of the accident and the dissociation of responsi bility and cause. The article contrasts the set up of the causes in ea ch of the two cases (process to conclude the attribution, the notion o f cause involved, the degree of dissemination in the cause network). I t indicates the different status which regulations can have within eac h type of attribution. It shows how the different judgments of respons ibility and the moral attitude when dealing with accidents relate to e ach other.