‘I am a Scaffolder’: Constructing Safety Knowledge and Machismo in ‘Dirty Work’
研究香港搭棚工如何应对高危、被污名化的“脏活”，发现他们通过构建无畏的男性身份和冒险行为来回应社会歧视，但传统知识正面临标准化培训的挑战。
This article investigates how Hong Kong scaffolders navigate and make sense of everyday dangerous work which is stigmatized in a highly aspirational society. With the theoretical lens of ‘dirty work’, we examine what attracts the scaffolders into the occupation, how they perceive and navigate risk, and how they construct the knowledge that enables them to function safely as skilled craftsmen. We found that the sector attracts young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and with links to the criminal underworld, who respond to social stigma by constructing an identity of intrepid performers and enacting unsafe high-risk activities and brinkmanship. Yet, their traditional knowledge and practices now face obsolescence due to pressure to standardize safety training and practice, and also due to an internal crisis of occupational legitimacy. This article contributes to our understanding of the analytical lens of ‘dirty work’ in macho cultures.