Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the psychosocial effects - such as experiences of discouragement, anxiety, and insomnia - produced by the precariousness of the Italian construction sector among workers and small entrepreneurs, and how they cope with these issues.

Paper long abstract:

This paper intends to reflect on the psychosocial effects produced by the precariousness of the construction sector among workers and small entrepreneurs in the Italian provinces of VCO (Piedmont) and Macerata (Marche). Like other contexts (Turner & Lingard, 2020), a commonality of behavioural patterns emerges to face the vulnerability and social insecurity of these workers. Trying to reflect on these habitus, the starting point adopted consists in the analysis of the restlessness generated by the capitalist reproduction of guilt and debt. Indeed, even though the institutions are aware of the physical damages provoked by this typology of work, the entrepreneurs’ vulnerability (Sischarenco, 2019) and experiences of anxiety, discouragement, and insomnia triggered by the socioeconomic pressures pass unnoticed. As for the “nervios” observed in Costa Rica by Low (1988), these aspects show how the nervous system is an embedded metaphor for the 'socio-political system' (Taussig, 1992). Furthermore, these manifestations of restlessness are faced by small entrepreneurs and workers through the use – and abuse – of alcohol, due to its ability to instil courage and anaesthetise the preoccupations caused by the structural violence of the banking and bureaucratic procedures (Graeber, 2011). Despite their awareness of the harmful effects on their health, the construction workers hardly modify their behaviour and even if they do it, these changes do not last long because of the stress produced by recurring bureaucratic or banking problems: drinking is seen as a medium of immediate enjoyment, fundamental for the physical and mental well-being.