Builders ― Class, Gender and Ethnicity in the Construction Industry

Building workers constitute between five and ten per cent of the total labour market in almost every country of the world. They construct, repair and maintain the vital physical infrastructure of our societies, and we rely upon and trust their achievements every day. Yet we know surprisingly little about builders, the organisation of their work, or the business relations that constitute their industry. This book redresses this lacuna by taking an in depth and close-up look at a section of London building workers and businessmen, highlighting a largely hidden social world.

Based on seven years of fieldwork where the author worked as a builder in London, this book describes the informal and practical cultural activities that underpin the construction economy, analysing how gifts, kick-backs, favours and loyalties served as the glue of this economy and also the fundamental frameworks for comprehending the mores and cultures of the building workers and businessmen. Thiel also explores the ethnic diversity and divisions within the trade, considering the centrality of the interrelationships of class, ethnicity and gender in the builders’ cultural and practical lives and showing how these factors interrelated with economy and polity to produce the building industry and its buildings.

Based predominately in cultural and economic sociology, the book will also be of interest to those working in the fields of gender studies; social class and inequality; migration and ethnicity; urban studies; and social identity.