Spreading of a safety culture in a community of amateur sports practitioners. The case of the French Free Flight Federation (FFVL)

This article deals about the spreading of a safety culture in the free flight community which is composed mostly of amateur practitioners by the Free Flight French Federation (FFVL). This intention was made necessary by the poor results in terms of accidentology that this community experiences each year, that jeopardize both the social acceptability of such leisure activity and the community itself by compromising its insurability. This leads to the following research question: how spreading an actual safety culture in a community of amateur sports practitioners. This article is based on a research-action conducted at the FFVL and proposes a theoretical framework that gives meaning to the risk management projects conducted by the federation, regarding the importance of diffusing a culture of safety.This framework provides both a mean to evaluate the actions lead by the federation and to describe how to foster the integration of individual and collective behaviour. It explains also how amateur practitioners can take over a risk management approach from an institution with which they haveonly tenuous links.