Theoretical Underpinnings for the Data

Two theoretical underpinnings which guide this research are explained in this chapter. The first is the cultural theory of risk perception. This theory is applied to The Block because wider moral questions are posed about categorising workplace practices within a social discourse. The second theoretical underpinning guiding this study is trivialisation as a mode of dissonance. The result of this dissonance is to reduce the activities to trivialisation because they are not seen as risky or unacceptable actions (Simon et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68: 247, 1995). These theories assist in explaining why the individual on The Block potentially reduced the importance of certain elements of WHSW.