The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate, how construction clients can contribute to the strengthening of work environment on their construction sites. As described by Ajslev et al. (2013), workers in the construction industry is placed in a double bind where they find themselves powerless, when facing health and safety related challenges, thus, experiencing pain and physical strain as an inevitable condition. It is the legal responsibility of the construction client to appoint a work environment coordinator to coordinate the safety arrangements on the building sites. The co-ordinator’s influence on workers’ way of practicing health and safety are investigated through a case study and qualitative interviews, hereby, examining the coordinator’s potential for breaking the double bind. It is concluded, that the coordinator has great potential for strengthening the health and safety on the building sites. However, there are several challenges that must be overcome in practice. The coordinators are influenced by the fact that they are also construction leaders and have to encourage practices that promote progression and productivity. Therefore, they must perform practices that are experienced as contradictory to their practices as coordinators, and they find themselves in a dilemma. The dilemma results in health and safety being performed with a pragmatic view. This pragmatic view contributes to the reproduction of existing norms and discourses, which keep the workers in the double bind, and they thereby, do not fulfill their potential as coordinators. In order to make use of their full potential, the coordinators must dispose of the pragmatic view, be consistent and demand a certain level of health and safety by the workers as well as the contractors. This can be the first step towards breaking the double bind.
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