’Not exactly by the book’ – an ethnographic study of how carpenter apprentices handle safety issues in their working environment

Abstract

The completion of a construction project presupposes planning, overview and project management, albeit in the experience of apprentices in the industry, work in construction is to a great extent contingent, ad hoc, and uncertain. The construction industry is also one of the industries with the highest numbers of accidents at work. Efforts to address this challenge are numerous, and regulations related to the working environment are a cornerstone in these efforts. Based on ten months ethnographic fieldwork among carpenter apprentices in Denmark the article contextualizes the experiences of the apprentices in relation to the work environment issues that they face in their daily work. The article illuminates how the apprentices handle the challenges in their working environment by negotiating formal safety regulations in relation to situated and embodied ways of establishing trust in their ability to do the job and finish their tasks. The analysis shows that in the experience of the apprentices, rule-following does not per see guarantee a safe working environment. Instead of trusting compliance with regulations to keep them safe, they apply a strategy of practically ignoring risk and dangers in an effort to concentrate on the actual task at hand. In this way they aim to build trust in their own ability handle the job, and thereby establish a feeling of security and confidence doing the job. In their experience the work they do can be dangerous, but if they focus on dangers and risks that will create and enhance insecurity and ultimately make the job unsafe. The arti- cle points to the importance of integrating bodily and tacit forms of knowledge related to health and safety in the effort to prevent accidents in the construction industry.