Informal interpreters and cultural mediators: Improving the construction safety of multi-national workforces.

作为建设（并将继续建设）我们城市的多元化劳动力的一部分，农民工填补了建筑技能缺口。在英国和丹麦同时就移民、技能短缺和建筑行业表现展开全国性辩论之际，值得注意的是，在建筑行业工作的口译员的就业路线和做法是不正式的，而且很少有人了解。这个博士项目将制定一个研究议程，以更好地理解这些一线工人不断变化的（有时是有争议的）做法，这些做法正在被忽视。它将开发一种多学科的方法来研究建筑工地瞬态和动态环境中的通信实践。特定的现场角色，如工头、帮工和主管，已经承担了非正式口译和笔译的职能，以弥合说英语的员工和低英语/非英语工人之间的差距（Tutt et al., 2013）。然而，他们的角色可能会在关键的现场健康和安全沟通方面带来风险。将设计一种适应性强、创新的民族志方法，以解释这些非正式调解实践所涉及的背景的特殊性，以及它们展开的协作环境和相互作用。在奥胡斯大学的同事的支持下，将在英格兰东南部和/或哥本哈根进行实地考察。民族志研究过程在方法上的灵活性（根据所收集的经验数据发展理论）将得到监督小组的密切支持。

Migrant workers fill the construction skills gap as part of the diverse workforce who build (and will continue to build) our cities. As national debates on immigration, skills-shortages and construction sector performance rage concurrently in the UK and Denmark, it is remarkable that the employment routes and practices of working interpreters in construction are unformalised and so little understood. This doctoral project will develop a research agenda to better understand the changing (and sometimes controversial) practices of these front-line workers, which are falling under the radar. It will develop a multidisciplinary approach to the study of communication practices in the transient and dynamic environment of construction sites.Particular site roles, such as foreman, gangers, and supervisors, have taken on functions as informal interpreters and translators to bridge the gap between English-speaking staff and low/non-English speaking workers (Tutt et al., 2013). Yet their role can present risks in terms of the communication of critical health and safety onsite.An adaptable, innovative ethnographic methodology will be designed to account for both the specificities of the contexts to which these informal mediatory practices relate, and the collaborative environments and interactions through which they unfold. It will include periods of fieldwork in South East England and/or Copenhagen, with support by colleagues at Aarhus University. The methodological flexibility of the ethnographic process (through which theory is developed on the basis of empirical data collected), will be closely supported by the supervisory team.