Queering men and masculinities in construction: towards a research agenda

Abstract

The topic of gender in the construction industry now commands a substantial literature given complaints about gender segregation and the dominance of men, culturally and numerically, within the sector. However, there is not enough research that problematizes men and masculinities as diverse and multiple, or investigates how gender binaries are implicated in sustaining heteronormativity within the construction scholarship, thereby marginalizing research on sexualities. The possibilities for ‘queering’ current research agendas are examined in regard to ‘men’ and ‘masculinities’, by introducing queer theory as a conceptual resource for disrupting and destabilizing facile notions of gender and sexuality as fixed, stable and universal. It is argued that analyses about men and masculinities in construction must take into account how men are situated in relation to formations of difference such as gender and sexuality. In so doing, concerns are expressed and new concepts and research questions are suggested with the primary aim of promoting but not prescribing further empirical research and theorizing.

Keywords:

• Gender
• heteronormativity
• queer theory
• research practice
• sexuality