The ambivalence of autonomy: skills, trust, tactics, and status on a construction site in Belize
The ambivalence of autonomy: skills, trust, tactics, and status on a construction site in Belize
This article focuses on the autonomy of construction workers informally employed in Belize City, Belize, as emerging from the labor processes and material conditions that characterize construction work in this ethnographic setting. I argue that the notion of ambivalence can be fruitfully applied in order to understand how autonomy acts in contradictory ways in reproducing the relationships amongst workers, and between them and their contractors. In a context characterized by personal relationships, minimized managerial control, and flexible employment, the article employs an ethnography of the workplace which focuses on the role of trust, status and tactics used by builders to their own advantage, in order to show the relevance of their autonomy for how they meaningfully engage with their work, with each other and their employers. The article asks how workers differentially positioned within the skills-based hierarchy of the workplace act ambivalently, simultaneously reinforcing and negating their unequal place within it while striving to make their conditions less precarious.
Autonomy, Belize, Caribbean, Central America, Skills, Status, Tactics, Trust, ambivalence, anthropology, construction industry, labour, workplace
38-48
Troccoli, Giuseppe
03b6b60b-d848-4714-bf14-8ffd25a88e09
1 July 2022
Troccoli, Giuseppe
03b6b60b-d848-4714-bf14-8ffd25a88e09
Troccoli, Giuseppe
(2022)
The ambivalence of autonomy: skills, trust, tactics, and status on a construction site in Belize.
Anthropology of Work Review, 43 (1), .
(doi:10.1111/awr.12234).
Abstract
This article focuses on the autonomy of construction workers informally employed in Belize City, Belize, as emerging from the labor processes and material conditions that characterize construction work in this ethnographic setting. I argue that the notion of ambivalence can be fruitfully applied in order to understand how autonomy acts in contradictory ways in reproducing the relationships amongst workers, and between them and their contractors. In a context characterized by personal relationships, minimized managerial control, and flexible employment, the article employs an ethnography of the workplace which focuses on the role of trust, status and tactics used by builders to their own advantage, in order to show the relevance of their autonomy for how they meaningfully engage with their work, with each other and their employers. The article asks how workers differentially positioned within the skills-based hierarchy of the workplace act ambivalently, simultaneously reinforcing and negating their unequal place within it while striving to make their conditions less precarious.
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Anthropology of Work Review - 2022 - Troccoli - The Ambivalence of Autonomy Skills Trust Tactics and Status on a
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Accepted/In Press date: 21 June 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 June 2022
Published date: 1 July 2022
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My gratitude goes to all the construction workers in Belize who shared their work and lives with me. The comments by the editorial collective and three anonymous reviewers greatly helped me in developing my thoughts. I’m grateful to the organizers and participants of the 2019 EASA Anthropology of Labor Network Workshop, University of Amsterdam, where I presented an earlier and shorter version of this article. The research was funded by the Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews; and the Royal Anthropological Institute/Sutasoma Award. Anthropology of Work Review
Keywords:
Autonomy, Belize, Caribbean, Central America, Skills, Status, Tactics, Trust, ambivalence, anthropology, construction industry, labour, workplace
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 468032
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468032
ISSN: 0883-024X
PURE UUID: fb80f828-bd78-4c02-b56e-e41eca04c524
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Date deposited: 28 Jul 2022 16:44
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 18:09
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