A Sense of Security: Carpentry Apprentices Handling Uncertain and Dangerous Work Tasks

ABSTRACT

This article explores how carpentry apprentices learn to handle uncertain and potentially dangerous situations in the working environment at construction sites. The analysis focuses on how these situations are negotiated at the workplaces in relation to bodily sensations of pain, relations with their co-workers and the importance placed on ‘getting the work done’. It shows that instead of working to eliminate potentially dangerous situations through the use of precautionary measures such as lifting equipment or personal protection gear, the apprentices learn to understand risk and uncertainties as a part of the job through general learning processes at the workplace.

KEYWORDS:

• Workplace safety
• risk
• uncertainty
• workplace learning
• carpentry apprentices
• Denmark

Acknowledgements

I want to express my gratitude to the people and institutions that allowed me into their world of work. Also, I am grateful to my supervisors for supportive and constructive discussions during the project and to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments throughout the process of writing this article. A grant from the Danish Working Environment Research Fund made the project economically possible.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Regine Grytnes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8682-8540

Notes

1 Interviews and field notes referred to in this article have been anonymised, and names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish Working Environment Research Fund [grant number 24-2008-09].