Trading health for money: agential struggles in the (re)configuration of subjectivity, the body and pain among construction workers

Abstract

Construction work is physically demanding and often associated with bodily pain. This article presents a study of construction workers' practices of using and relating to their bodies at work through an agential realist framework for analysing the (re)configuration of the workers' embodied subjectivity. The analysis draws on interviews with 32 Danish construction workers as well as brief observations. The article shows how 'trading health for money' becomes a mode for maintaining positive social, occupational and masculine identity among construction workers. Furthermore, it shows how the agency of the body is overruled by the intra-acting agencies of productivity, collegiality, job security and masculine working-class identity. Finally, it shows an instability in this configuration of masculine working-class identity that leaves room for a focus on the body.

Bodies at Work, Work on Bodies: Migrant Bodies, Wage Labour, and Family Reunification in Italy

“…This 'recuperation' (Batnitzky and McDowell 2013) does not seem to happen in other areas of the labour market, e.g. in the secondary sector (Ajslev et al 2016) as will be considered in this article. A further aspect that is rarely addressed in literature and that this article deals with is the link between the migrant's body at work and the experience of family reunification.…”

Effects of a Participatory Ergonomics Intervention With Wearable Technical Measurements of Physical Workload in the Construction Industry: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

“…There may be several contributing factors to the high physical demands of construction work, of which work organization plays an important role. Construction work in Denmark is characterized by being organized in small working units, often on a group-based wage, which can be associated with an increased risk factor for WMSDs [62] and can induce a group pressure within the gang to get the work done at a certain time without taking pain into consideration [63]. Studies suggest that both structural and cultural changes are necessary to create changes in the construction industry [57,64].…”

Effects of a Participatory Ergonomics Intervention With Wearable Technical Measurements of Physical Workload in the Construction Industry: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

“…Construction work in Denmark is characterized by being organized in small working units, often on a group-based wage, which can be associated with an increased risk factor for WMSD [49] and can induce a group pressure within the gang to get the work done at a certain time without taking pain into consideration [50]. Studies suggest that both structural and cultural changes are necessary to create changes in the construction industry [44,51].…”