To transfer is to transform: The circulation of safety knowledge

Organizational knowing is fundamentally a collective endeavour through whic h heterogeneous materials and entities, such as ideas, concepts, artifacts, texts, persons, norms, and traditions are mobilized, modified, translated, distorted exposed, used, ignored or hidden in view of some practical accom plishment, such as safety in a construction site. Safety as a form of organ izational expertise is therefore situated in the system of ongoing practice s, has both explicit and tacit dimensions, is relational and mediated by ar tifacts, that is, if is material as well as mental and representational. Us ing examples derived from the observation data we will discuss how safety-r elated knowledge is constituted institutionalized, and continually redefine d and renegotiated within the organizing process through the interplay betw een action and reflexivity.