Gender (in)equality contested : externalising employment in the construction industry

• In construction and engineering, workers from different organisations work together, often on a project-by-project basis. Drawing on the theoretical framework of inequality regimes as presented by Acker (2006a), and the externalisation of employment relations presented by Kalleberg et.al. (2003), this article investigates the gendered implications of the externalisation of technological work in the construction industry. The empirical material is based upon interviews and a questionnaire answered by regular employees, contracted staff and independent contractors working in the construction industry. The data reveal how non-standard employments are parts of the organising processes that produce gendered inequalities between core and peripheral workers. This finding does not suggest that peripheral work indicates poor working conditions, to be more presise, peripheral workers can be in the most priviledged positions.  

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

project work

construction industry

gender

externalisation

inequality regimes

engineering

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)