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1 – 10 of 11Hongying Niu, Xiaodong Yang, Jiayu Zhang and Shengyu Guo
Construction fall-from-height accidents are not only caused by a single factor but also by the risk coupling between two or more factors. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Construction fall-from-height accidents are not only caused by a single factor but also by the risk coupling between two or more factors. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the risk coupling relationships between multiple factors and identify critical factors in construction fall-from-height accidents.
Design/methodology/approach
A cause analysis framework was established from the perspective of human, machine, material, management and environmental factors. The definition, the classification and the process of risk coupling were proposed. The data from 824 historical accident reports from 2011 to 2021 were collected on government websites. A risk coupling analysis model was constructed to quantitatively analyze the risk coupling relationships of multiple factors based on the N-K model. The results were classified using K-means clustering analysis.
Findings
The results indicated that the greater the number of causal factors involved in risk coupling, the higher the risk coupling value and the higher the risk of accidents. However, specific risk coupling combinations occurred when the number of their coupling factors was not large. Human, machine and material factors were determined to be the critical factors when risk coupling between them tended to pose a greater risk of accidents.
Originality/value
This study established a cause analysis framework from five aspects and constructed a theoretical model to quantitatively analyze multi-factor coupling. Several suggestions were proposed for construction units to manage accident risks more effectively by controlling the number of factors and paying more attention to critical factors coupling and management and environmental factors.
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Shengyu Guo, Yujia Zhao, Yuqiu Luoren, Kongzheng Liang and Bing Tang
Knowledge discovery related to unsafe behaviors promotes the performance of accident prevention in construction. Although numerous studies on accident causation models have…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge discovery related to unsafe behaviors promotes the performance of accident prevention in construction. Although numerous studies on accident causation models have discussed the correlations of unsafe behaviors with various factors (e.g., unsafe conditions), limited research explores correlations between unsafe behaviors within accidents. The purpose of this paper is mining strong association rules of unsafe behaviors from historical accidents to clarify this kind of tacit knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was adopted as the research approach, in which accident records from building and urban railway construction in China were selected as data resources. The groups of unsafe behaviors extracted from accident records were expressed by the definitions of unsafe behaviors from safety regulations and operating procedures. Frequent Pattern (FP)-Growth algorithm was used for association rule mining, and the critical correlations between unsafe behaviors were represented by the effective strong rules.
Findings
The findings identify and distinguish correlations between unsafe behaviors within construction accidents. In building construction, workers and managers should pay attention to preventing unsafe behaviors related to personal protective equipment and machines and equipment. In urban railway construction, workers should especially avoid unsafe behaviors of inadequately dealing with environmental factors.
Practical implications
Tacit knowledge is transferred to explicit knowledge as the critical correlations between unsafe behaviors within accidents are determined by the effective strong rules. Additionally, the findings provide practice guidance for safety management, to collaboratively control unsafe behaviors with strong correlations.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the body of safety knowledge in construction and provides a further understanding of how construction accidents are caused by multiple unsafe behaviors.
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Lijia Shao, Shengyu Guo, Yimeng Dong, Hongying Niu and Pan Zhang
The construction collapse is one of the most serious accidents since it has several attributes (e.g. accident type and consequence) and its occurrence involves various kinds of…
Abstract
Purpose
The construction collapse is one of the most serious accidents since it has several attributes (e.g. accident type and consequence) and its occurrence involves various kinds of causal factors (e.g. human factors). The impact of causal factors on construction collapse accidents and the interrelationships among causal factors remain poorly explored. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to use association rule mining (ARM) for cause analysis of construction collapse accidents.
Design/methodology/approach
An accident analytic framework is developed to determine the accident attributes and causal factors, and then ARM is introduced as the method for data mining. The data are from 620 historical accident records on government websites of China from 2010 to 2020. Through the generated association rules, the impact of causal factors and the interrelationships among causal factors are explored.
Findings
Collapse accident is easily caused by human factors, material and machine condition and management factors. Furthermore, the results show a close interrelationship between many causal factors and construction scheme and organization. The earthwork collapse is greatly related to environmental condition and the scaffolding collapse is greatly related to material and machine condition.
Practical implications
This study found relevant knowledge about the key causes for different types of construction collapses. Besides, several suggestions are further provided for construction units to prevent construction collapse accidents.
Originality/value
This study uses data mining methods to extract knowledge about the causes of collapse accidents. The impact of causal factors on various types of construction collapse accidents and the interrelationships among causal factors are explained from historical accident data.
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From the sixteenth to eighteenth century, China underwent a commercial revolution similar to the one in contemporaneous Europe. The rise of market did foster the rise of a nascent…
Abstract
From the sixteenth to eighteenth century, China underwent a commercial revolution similar to the one in contemporaneous Europe. The rise of market did foster the rise of a nascent bourgeois and the concomitant rise of a liberal, populist version of Confucianism, which advocated a more decentralized and less authoritarian political system in the last few decades of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). But after the collapse of the Ming Empire and the establishment of the Qing Empire (1644–1911) by the Manchu conquerors, the new rulers designated the late-Ming liberal ideologies as heretics, and they resurrected the most conservative form of Confucianism as the political orthodoxy. Under the principle of filial piety given by this orthodoxy, the whole empire was imagined as a fictitious family with the emperor as the grand patriarch and the civil bureaucrats and subjects as children or grandchildren. Under the highly centralized administrative and communicative apparatus of the Qing state, this ideology of the fictitious patrimonial state penetrated into the lowest level of the society. The subsequent paternalist, authoritarian, and moralizing politics of the Qing state contributed to China’s nontransition to capitalism despite its advanced market economy, and helped explain the peculiar form and trajectory of China’s popular contention in the eighteenth century. I also argue that this tradition of fictitious patrimonial politics continued to shape the state-making processes in twentieth-century China and beyond.
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This research aims at explaining the phenomenon of the “black children” (heihaizi), a very little-known generation who lived with concealment under the one-child policy in China…
Abstract
This research aims at explaining the phenomenon of the “black children” (heihaizi), a very little-known generation who lived with concealment under the one-child policy in China. The one-child policy was officially introduced to nationwide at the end of 1979 by permitting per couple to have one child only, later modified to a second child allowed if the first was a girl in rural China in 1984. It was officially replaced by a nation-wide two-child policy and most existing research focused on the parents’ sufferings and policy changes. The term “black children” has been mainly used to describe their absence from their family hukou registration and education. However, this research aims at expanding the meaning of being “black” to explain the children who were concealed more than at the level of family formal registration, but also physical freedom and emotional bond. What we do not yet know are the details of their lived experiences from a day-to-day base: where did they live? How were they raised up? Who were involved? Who benefited from it and who did not? In this way, this research challenges the existing scholarship on the one-child policy and repositions the “black children” as primary victims, and reveals the family as a key figure in co-producing their diminished status with the support of state power. It is very important to understand these children’s loss of citizenship and human freedom from the inside of the family because they were concealed in so many ways away from public view and interventions. This research focuses on illustrating how their lack of access to continued, stabilized, and reciprocally recognized family interactions framed their very idea of self-worth and identity.
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Hemaid Alsulami, Suhail H. Serbaya, Ali Rizwan, Muhammad Saleem, Yassine Maleh and Zobia Alamgir
In a country like Saudi Arabia, where the construction industry is witnessing an impressive growth in the post-oil era, it is important to examine the occupational health and…
Abstract
Purpose
In a country like Saudi Arabia, where the construction industry is witnessing an impressive growth in the post-oil era, it is important to examine the occupational health and safety behaviors of construction workers (CWs).
Design/methodology/approach
The present study aims to investigate the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) on workers' stress and safety behaviors. Data were collected from CWs (n = 265) at a major construction site in the city of Jeddah. Two questionnaires comprising 25 and 32 questions were used to measure their EI and stress levels, respectively. Furthermore, structured interviews were conducted with the managers and supervisors to inquire about the safety behavior of their respective workers. Descriptive statistics, simple and companion regression were used for data analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that EI plays an important role to enhance the safety behaviors of the CWs besides reducing their workplace stresses. Furthermore, workers' stress levels are found to negatively impact their safety behaviors, indicating that any reduction in occupational stress can reciprocally enhance their safety compliance. The findings are further discussed with the concerned stakeholders to recommend a seven-point therapeutic role of EI for the safety of CWs.
Originality/value
Results of the study can be used by managers and supervisors of the Saudi construction industry to reduce workplace accidents and improve the productivity of their organizations.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine green university initiatives in the context of China, using Tsinghua University, which is China’s green university pioneer, as a case…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine green university initiatives in the context of China, using Tsinghua University, which is China’s green university pioneer, as a case study.
Design/methodology/approach
The research method used for this paper is a case study based on participant observation and document analysis. The approach to data collection includes the examination of archive records, yearbooks and statistical information regarding Tsinghua University.
Findings
This paper finds that Tsinghua’s green university initiative is a response to Tsinghua’s strategy of establishing a word-class university, with a goal of bearing more responsibility in promoting a sustainable society. Tsinghua employs one principle (green university) and three dimensions (green education, green research and green campus) to frame its green university initiative. Tsinghua’s green university initiative has earned many achievements, but it has also faced many challenges, such as ignoring social justice, fragmented coordination efforts and the lack of effective communication and assessment mechanisms.
Practical implications
As a leading university and the pioneering green university in the country, Tsinghua University is very influential with regard to the development of green universities in China. Many other universities have designed their own programs based on Tsinghua’s experiences in the green university initiative. As such, Tsinghua’s experiences provide reference values to other universities in China.
Originality/value
This paper comprehensively examines the evolution, framework, achievements and challenges of the green university initiative of Tsinghua University. It helps the audience to know how China’s universities understand and practice education for sustainable development.
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Fung Kwan, Yanrui Wu and Shuaihe Zhuo
This paper aims to contribute to the pool of studies of rural underemployment in China. It is devoted to the conceptualization and measurement of surplus labour.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the pool of studies of rural underemployment in China. It is devoted to the conceptualization and measurement of surplus labour.
Design/methodology/approach
The agricultural labour requirement function is estimated by the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) with China's prefecture‐level data. Surplus labour or inefficient labour is obtained by subtracting the required labour from the actual labour participated in agriculture.
Findings
The authors' analysis indicates that the existing size of agricultural surplus labour in rural China is still significantly large with the continued practice of the household registration system and China's WTO membership. However, the size has been decreasing over the last decade.
Research limitations/implications
Quality of data might affect the authors' estimates.
Practical implications
The phenomenon of the coexistence of surplus agricultural labour and shortage of workers in non‐agricultural production in urban China was discussed in line with the authors' research findings, as this has important impacts on the policies of rural industrialization in China.
Social implications
This paper further argues that China is probably experiencing the second stage of the Lewis‐Fei‐Ranis dualistic economic framework.
Originality/value
The authors' paper is probably the first to use prefecture data and SFA for panel data study of surplus agricultural labour in China. The analysis is essential to the understanding of the rural labour market during its rapid transition.
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In recent years, the concept of subculture has been fiercely criticized, with some scholars even claiming that it is no longer relevant in a multi-cultural world (Muggleton, 2000;…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, the concept of subculture has been fiercely criticized, with some scholars even claiming that it is no longer relevant in a multi-cultural world (Muggleton, 2000; Chaney, 2004; Stahl, 2004). However, the authors argue that by revisiting the Chicago School tradition and reconceptualizing subculture on the basis of acknowledging its limitations and its potential, subculture theory remains applicable in the context of contemporary China. Through an eight-month ethnographic study of a group of deviant students in a secondary school in urban China, the purpose of this paper is to contend that the subculture of these young people from lower-class backgrounds is a means to negotiate their space and power in a failing school system situated in a drastically transforming society full of diversified yet often conflicting values.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors undertook an ethnographic study to follow a group of deviant students for eight months, trying to understand their everyday lives and the process of their identity construction. The research was conducted in Xiamen, a coastal city located in the southeast part of mainland China. Unlike large metropolitan areas such as Beijing and Shanghai, where most studies have been conducted so far, Xiamen represents one of the medium-sized cities, which are the majority in China. After a process of sampling among 11 classes from five schools in different tiers, the authors chose one class in Grade 2 at a medium-level secondary school called “Central Park Secondary School” as a pseudonym. The authors stayed in the field for the main study and the authors also paid another visit to the school to follow up on students’ recent development.
Findings
In this study, a group of problem students identified with each other and shared the same problems and situations, and collectively formed a subcultural group, from within which they could challenge the authority of teachers and parents and negotiate power in the school; for example, reaching a truce with teachers so that they could have an easier time at school until they graduated. Their subculture and resistance may seem like a self-defeating practice, because what they learned at school and the qualifications they obtained could only assure them laboring jobs and reproduce their lower class status. However, this subculture offered an alternative way to safeguard their happiness and healthy development, which in this case is psychological well-being and better interpersonal skills.
Practical implications
This paper could provide the teachers and school administrators with a new perspective to look at some of their students’ poor performance and disruptive behaviors. With a deeper understanding of their “deviant” students, the teachers may develop more pertinent measures to help their students.
Originality/value
This paper argues that, through revisiting the Chicago School tradition and reconceptualizing subculture on the basis of acknowledging its limitations and potential, subculture theory remains applicable in the context of contemporary China.
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Bangxi Li, Chong Liu, Feng Zhao and Yanghua Huang
In the current literature, there is little systematic research on the relationship among adjustment of the income distribution, change in economic structure and improvement of…
Abstract
Purpose
In the current literature, there is little systematic research on the relationship among adjustment of the income distribution, change in economic structure and improvement of macroeconomic efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper expands Marx's reproduction schema into the “Marx–Sraffa” three-department structure table comprising fixed capital, general means of production and means of consumption and employs China's input–output table from 1987 to 2015 to portray the relationship between income distribution and macroeconomic efficiency under investment-driven growth.
Findings
This paper calculates the wage–profit curve of China's economy and evaluates the space of macroeconomic efficiency improvement in China based on the deviation between actual and potential income distribution structure.
Originality/value
The results show that there is a downward trend of the profit rate, which meets Marx's theoretical prediction, and the decline in the profit rate is mainly attributed to an increase in the organic composition of capital arising from the rapid growth of fixed capital investment under extended growth. The analysis of macroeconomic efficiency shows that the space for improving macroeconomic efficiency is extremely limited under traditional growth pattern and that China must transform its economic development pattern and foster new economic growth drivers.
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