Narration Inquiry of the Working Life of Construction Workers in Mashhad City

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Master of Social Sciences in planning and welfare, University of Tehran

10.22051/ijosed.2024.46802.1038

Abstract

Construction workers, who have their own job and income challenges due to their low job skills and of course the stagnation of urban construction, are part of the social and economic problems of the metropolis of Mashhad. This research aims to investigate the process of becoming a worker in Among the groups of construction workers and using the qualitative approach and narrative analysis method, the life history of these workers and the factors leading to becoming a construction worker have been identified and finally the process model of their working life has been formulated. Based on targeted sampling, with Narrative interviews were conducted with 20 construction workers who were transiently present in the squares and streets of the gathering place. The findings show that construction workers fall into three general categories. The first category is people who dropped out of school and learned a special skill with the father of the family or another person. The second category includes people who have not learned a skill despite dropping out of school. Finally, the third category consists of people who, in addition to continuing their studies, have learned skills with their families. The three milestones in expressing the lived experience of these workers in their professional life are:
Hereditary labor, unemployment and idleness and the crisis of supervisor

Keywords

Main Subjects


 
Amin, A. (2002), “Ethnicity and the multicultural city”, Environment and Planning A, 34(6), 959-980.
Ashkan, & b., Mojtabi, Tehran: Negah Danesh . (In Persian)
Badri, A., Gbodossou, A., & Nadeau, S. (2012). Occupational health and safety risks: Towards the integration into project management. Safety science, 50(2), 190-198.
Baghani Moghadam, M. H., Ahram Posh, M. H., Ardian, N., & Soltani, T. (2012). Determining the status of lifestyle and factors related to it among employees and workers in Yazd city. Occupational Medicine Quarterly, 5(3), 87-79. (In Persian)
Buckley, M., Zendel, A., Biggar, J., Frederiksen, L., & Wells, J. (2016). Migrant work & employment in the construction sector. International Labor Organization.
Byrne, D. (2005). EBOOK: Social Exclusion. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Caves, R. W. (2005). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge.
Chan, A. P., Javed, A. A., Wong, F. K., Hon, C. K., & Lyu, S. (2017). Evaluating the safety climate of ethnic minority construction workers in Hong Kong. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 143(4), 04017006
Carvajal-Arango, D., Vasquez-Hernandez, A., & Botero-Botero, L. F. (2021). Assessment of subjective workplace well-being of construction workers: A bottom-up approach. Journal of Building Engineering, 36, 102154.
Creswell, J. d. (2011). The research method and design of choosing among the five qualitative research approaches of the translation of H. Q. P. Tahmorth, A. (In Persian)
Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted: Poverty and profit in the American city. Crown.
Duke, M. R., Bourdeau, B., & Hovey, J. D. (2010). Day laborers and occupational stress: testing the Migrant Stress Inventory with a Latino day laborer population. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(2), 116.Psychology 16 (2): 116–122.
Eaves, S., Gyi, D. E., & Gibb, A. G. (2016). Building healthy construction workers: Their views on health, wellbeing and better workplace design. Applied ergonomics, 54, 10-18.
Fernández, M. (2018). Hanging Out Together, Surviving on Your Own: The Precarious Communities of Day Laborers. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 47(6), 865-887.
Firouzabadi, S. A. & Sadeghi, A. (2012). Social exclusion: a sociological approach to deprivation (conceptual review, theoretical perspectives and case studies in Iran), Tehran: Sociologists Publications. (In Persian)
Gómez-Salgado C, Camacho-Vega JC, Gómez-Salgado J, García-Iglesias JJ, Fagundo-Rivera J, Allande-Cussó R, Martín-Pereira J, Ruiz-Frutos C. (2023). Stress, fear, and anxiety among construction workers: a systematic review. Front Public Health.13(11), 22-69.
Gonzalez, A. (2007) “Day Labor in the Golden State. Public Policy Institute of California”, California Economic Policy.
Green, M., & Hulme, D. (2005). From correlates and characteristics to causes: thinking about poverty from a chronic poverty perspective. World Development, 33(6), 867-879.
Hamidian, A., Zahedi, M. J., Maleki, A., Ansari, I. (2014). Investigating the relationship between socio-economic inequalities and social exclusion of groups in the metropolis of Isfahan. Contemporary Sociological Researches, 4(6), 1-32. (In Persian)
Hamshahri Online (1402): https://www.hamshahrionline.ir. In Persian.
Hasan, M. M. (2019). Political economy of poverty in the haor region of Bangladesh (Doctoral dissertation, University of Dhaka).
Hallowell, M. R., & Yugar-Arias, I. F. (2016). Exploring fundamental causes of safety challenges faced by Hispanic construction workers in the US using photovoice. Safety science, 82, 199-211.
Hare, B., Cameron, I., Real, K. J., & Maloney, W. F. (2013). Exploratory case study of pictorial aids for communicating health and safety for migrant construction workers. Journal of construction engineering and management, 139(7), 818-825.
Harvey, D. (2006): A Critical Reader, Edited by Noel Castree and Derek Gregory, Blackwell
Harvey, D. (2012): Rebel cities: From the right to the city to the urban revolution, Verso, London, New York.
Islamic Republic News Agency (11/02/1403): https://www.irna.ir/news
Islamic Republic News Agency, 12/24/1400): https://www.irna.ir/news
Khorasan Newspaper. (11/23/1402) http://khorasanrazavi.khorasannews.com/Newspaper
Kong, L., Li, H., Yu, Y., Luo, H., Skitmore, M., & Antwi-Afari, M. F. (2018). Quantifying the physical intensity of construction workers, a mechanical energy approach. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 38, 404-419.
Leung, M. Y., Chan, I. Y. S., & Yu, J. (2012). Preventing construction worker injury incidents through the management of personal stress and organizational stressors. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 48, 156-166.
Li, S., Wu, X., Wang, X., & Hu, S. (2020). Relationship between social capital, safety competency, and safety behaviors of construction workers. Journal of construction engineering and management, 146(6), 04020059.
Mangai, D. R., Isa, R. B., & Bello, A. O. (2023). Living Condition of Workers in The Construction Industry: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis. International Mediterranean Scientific Research and Innovation Congress, Turkey
Majlis Research Center, Substructure Studies Office (2022), report on investment challenges in the housing and urban development sector with a view to developing the 7th plan. (In Persian)
Meléndez, E., Anne Visser, M., Valenzuela Jr, A., & Theodore, N. (2016). Day Laborer’s Work-Related Injuries: An Assessment of Risks, Choices, and Policies. International Migration, 54(3), 5-19.
Menzel, N. N., & Gutierrez, A. P. (2010). Latino worker perceptions of construction risks. American journal of industrial medicine, 53(2), 179-187.
Monteiro, E., & Joseph, J. (2023). A review on the impact of Workplace Culture on Employee Mental Health and Well-Being. International Journal of Case Studies in Business, IT and Education (IJCSBE), 7(2), 291-317.
Muffels, R and Fouarge D. (2001) Social Exclusion and Poverty: Definition, Public Debate and Empirical Evidence in the Netherlands. In Social exclusion and European policy, edited by Mayes D.G., Berghman J. and Salais R.       Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 4(12). 93-124
Mushfiq, M., and Yarahamdi, A. (1386). Labor migration, employment in the informal labor market and the resulting vulnerability. Journal of the Iranian Demographic Society, 3(2), 149-162. Art, Culture and Communication Research Institute. (In Persian)
Nowzari, H. (2016). Analysis of workers' experience and understanding of working conditions: reasons and consequences (case study: Karaj garment manufacturing workers). Welfare Planning and Social Development, 8(31), 231-262. (In Persian)
O’Neil, T., & Piron, L. H. (2003). Rights-based approaches to tackling discrimination and horizontal inequality. Background paper for the Inequality in Middle Income Countries Study, London: Overseas Development Institute.
Oswald, D., Sherratt, F., Smith, S. D., & Hallowell, M. R. (2018). Exploring safety management challenges for multi-national construction workforces: a UK case study. Construction management and economics, 36(5), 291-301.
Parvin, S., & Ali Babaei, Y. (2012). Sociological study of the tendency of seasonal migrant workers towards high-risk behaviors in Tehran. Rural Development, 5(1).183-195. (In Persian)
Parvin, S., Kalantari, A., & Safari, M. R. (2013). The daily experience of fruit and vegetable fields workers in Tehran (with an emphasis on social harms, Social Work Research, 1(1), 173-206. (In Persian)
Qazivi, M., & Maqsoudi, M. (1993). An anthropological study about the causes of migration and the working and living conditions of some (seasonal) construction workers in Tehran. Nagha Danesh, 8 (31).,2-20
Richardson, C. (2001). Relative Deprivation Theory in Terrorism: a study of Higher Eucation and Unemployment as Predictors of Terrorism. Senior Honors Thesis Professor Michael Gillin, Polirics Department, New York University.
Shepherd, R., Lorente, L., Vignoli, M., Nielsen, K., & Peiró, J. M. (2021). Challenges influencing the safety of migrant workers in the construction industry: A qualitative study in Italy, Spain, and the UK. Safety science, 142910), 15-38.
Silver, H. (2007), The process of social exclusion: the dynamics of an evolving concept, Department of Sociology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Siniavskaia, N. (2018). Immigrant workers in the construction labor force. NAHB Economics.
Steel, K. C., Fernandez-Esquer, M. E., Atkinson, J. S., & Taylor, W. C. (2018). Exploring relationships among social integration, social isolation, self-rated health, and demographics among Latino day laborers. Ethnicity & Health, 23(4), 425-441.
Strauss, C. (2011). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research (techniques and stages of production of grounded theory) (translated by A. Afshar. Tehran: Nei Publishing House. (In Persian)
Toloui, V., & Khaliq Panah, K. (1387). Narratology and narrative analysis. Reading, -(9), 45-51. (In Persian)
Welton, M., DeJoy, D., Castellanos, M. E., Ebell, M., Shen, Y., & Robb, S. (2018). Ethnic disparities of perceived safety climate among construction workers in Georgia, 2015. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 5, 522-529.
Wong, T. W. (1994). Occupational injuries among construction workers in Hong Kong. Occup Med (Lond), 44(5), 247-252.
Wu, C., Luo, X., Wang, T., Wang, Y., & Sapkota, B. (2018). Safety challenges and improvement strategies of ethnic minority construction workers: a case study in Hong Kong. International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics.4(11).22-41
Yet, as Vignoliet al. (2021) argue, nontechnical skills such as communicating about safety hazards, working as a team to foster a sense of collective safety, and being aware of hazardous situations, are vital for migrant worker safety.14(1),2-16.
Zhang, Y., Li, Y., Xue, X., Dou, Y., & Zhang, R. (2023). Network analysis of well-being of managerial employees in the construction industry. Journal of Building Engineering, 80, 108011.
Zibra, M. (2015), Sociological theories of social exclusions, translated by Seyyed Hasan Hosseini, Tehran. (In Persian)