About
PhD project: From risk to (dis)protection: sociology of the legal framework on compensation for accidents at work among Construction and Textile Industry workers
Reference: SFRH/BD/145663/2019
Supervisor: Virgílio Borges Pereira (IS-UP); Co-supervisor: Yasmine Siblot (Université Paris 8)
Timeline: 2019-April 2024
Abstract: Accidents at work generates many impacts not only on the life of those who suffer them – with widespread breakdown of structures and disorganisation –, but also on the organisation and activity of other social agents and institutions, and are a major and complex social problem that needs to be explored in its various aspects. Recent official data published by the Strategy and Planning Office of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security show that the nature of the phenomenon is “permanent and massive” (Pinto, 1996: 92). This project seeks to analyse the institutional framework and legal redress through an in-depth analysis of the experience of people injured at work in the construction and textile industries, sectors of activity employing a large workforce who are part of the large professional group (CPP/2010) most affected by work-related accidents, craft and related trade workers /Skilled workers in industry, construction and craftwork. Aware of the bottlenecks in the relations between weak institutional coverage and weak cultural culture (Monteiro, Pereira, 2018) of accident victims, we aim to build an analysis model that will enable us to “understand the specific modus operandi of the bureaucratic microcosms” (Bourdieu, 2001:90) at stake. In this sense, the theoretical-empirical work will seek to answer a central and structural question, succinctly presented here: how is the relationship between exposure to risk, inequality in the distribution of economic and cultural capital and problems of coverage and democratic access to institutions set up in the context of legal redress for occupational accidents?
