Constructing craft identities: discourses of skill and identity in the building trades

Apprenticeship and training in UK construction crafts have declined dramatically over the past 35 years, and much learning now takes place informally, on the job. This is the background to the aim of this research, to explore the nature of skill and identity in the building trades. 49 semi-structured interviews were carried out with informants having worked on construction sites in England over the period since the Second World War. A narrative analysis produced 'life histories' of learning and practicing a trade. The interviews were also analysed in terms of changing understandings of skill and identity, comparing data from contemporary sites in the southeast with a historical case study of the Manchester Direct Works Department in 1979-1982. Critical Discourse Analysis identified site discourses used to construct indentities and compared these with discourses from policy documents since 1950.