Why the de-emphasis of wider societal factors in construction failures analysis is fatal

Safety scientists have long been advised always to pay heed to ‘second stories’. It, however, seems that the advice has not yet reached construction safety scholars who subscribe to the so-called systems thinking or theories. The systems approach to construction failures focuses on clients and construction firms’ organisational and managerial processes and workplace factors when analysing such risks. It tends to ignore or deprioritise other vantage areas of inquiry such as wider societal factors – the socio-economic and political–cultural influences of suboptimal construction processes and practices. This review contends that the omission is fatal as it impedes insights into the social context of construction failures. It exemplifies the fatality of the omission with the approach’s inadequacy to offer insights into a public safety-threatening version of construction risks, namely, building collapse in the urban context. It concludes with some remarks on directions for future research.