CIAO DATE: 02/2009
January 2009
Centre for European Political Sociology
Because they deal with issues of bodily integrity and health, the policies managing occupational risks reveal the contradictions of public action in the field of occupational relationships, and the fragile compromises to which they lead. This paper sets out to question the difficulties related to the legitimisation of public policies in the field of workplace health. We analyse the reasons why these policies are difficult to legitimate and present an overview of the solutions that have been elaborated to answer this problem. The recent evolutions of public health policies, notably the arrival of new actors in traditional arenas of negotiation tend to weaken these compromises and force actors to elaborate new modes of action. These evolutions should then be analysed by taking into account other public policies, in order to determine to what extent the management of occupational risks is undergoing the same transformations or if this field remains unaffected.
Resource link: The uncertain legitimacy of occupational health policies [PDF] - 1.1M