O'Byrne, M (2013) Interpreting without a safety harness: The purpose and power of participants in interpreted health and safety training for the construction industry in Ireland. PhD thesis, Dublin City University, Ireland.
Abstract
The boom in the construction industry became one of the symbols for the period of Irish economic growth dubbed ‘the Celtic Tiger’. After the accession of ten new countries to the EU in May 2004, Irish construction sites welcomed thousands of needed international workers from these new member states. Ensuring their health and safety at work became a fundamental issue. In the presence of linguistic and cultural differences interpreters were called upon to interpret during H&S training sessions for migrant workers. The current study describes the H&S interpreting setting and why interpreters are vulnerable within it. Drawing on Inghilleri's theory of the 'configuration of the social', and Mason's concept of 'pretextuality', the study explores Inghilleri's concept of 'interpreting habitus' within which interpreters are able – through a variety of strategies – to claim certain communication rights, and as a result potentially contribute towards the constructing of new communication/social order/meanings. These aspects of the interpreting habitus in the H&S setting are explored within the contexts of culture, gender and multimodality and are considered in light of Pöchhacker's model of quality understood as successful communication.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Ireland; communication; culture; economic growth; gender; health and safety; mason; migrant workers; safety; training |
| Index terms: | migrant worker, configuration, health and safety, meaning, drawing, cultural difference, strategy, construction site, presence, construction industry, economic growth, Ireland, mason |
| Subjects: | work location, technical documentation, industry analysis, systems engineering, sociology, management, environmental science, practitioner, cross-cultural studies, health safety and environment, Geography, economic development |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Health and Safety, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Site Management, Design Practice, International Construction, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here