Climate Change Vulnerability and the Politics of Production on Swiss Construction Sites

Although it is widely acknowledged that vulnerability to climate change is distributed unevenly, the significance of differences in working conditions remains understudied. This article explores workplace climate vulnerability through analysis of the ‘politics of production’, understood as the interaction between negotiations at the level of institutional regulation and those pertaining to the labour process. The matter is considered through interviews with Jan, a Swiss construction worker. Jan’s narrative indicates that a ‘politics of production’ does not represent clashes of pre-existing interests but rather themselves generate definite subjectivities that in turn influence how climate change is negotiated. For example, norms of masculinity which prescribe the silent endurance of pain, can prevent individuals from taking action to protect themselves from the effects of climate change. The perspective of a ‘politics of production’ also aids in the understanding of a persistent maladaptation to climate change now causing further environmental and worker-related strains.