All the critique we have targeted towards safety culture does
not entail that the concept is without significance. The concept has
had large practical impact in various industries by getting man-
agers and workers to think about the “soft” side of safety. Thus,
the concept has been beneficial for safety. However, the concept of
safety culture needs to be deconstructed in terms of safety rather
than (as is the current situation) foremost exploring what kinds
of issues a culture of safety could be made of. It is highly relevant
to pay more attention to the concept of safety itself and from that
investigate how culture might enter the safety equation. Such an
endeavour should not hesitate to return to some traditional ideas
about technology and safety principles (such as defence in depth,
redundancy, single failure criterion, etc.) and from that further
explore how such principles may contribute to safety. The contribu-
tion from the safety culture tradition might open our eyes to how
basic assumptions and values can influence how we apply (and
sometimes misuse) such principles.