Thus, the study focused on the following questions: The interactions of the injured at work with the institutions; the impact of the accident on life and occupational identities in terms of income,  employment and working relationships; the return to work after the accident through a gender analysis and, finally, the suffering among the injured workers.

The study highlights how work accidents inflict a “dramatic discontinuity of the professional life” (p.21), being the process of social disqualification “sensitive to determinations associated with gender, levels and forms of school capital detained and the type of occupations of the agents involved” (p.27). “So although the results show painful and degrading situations for both men and women, it seems that women are frequently the most affected, taking into account the work and employment conditions, the type of accident and most common injury, but also the impact of these accidents on their health which can be expressed in the form of pains that are not episodic, which prevail in the context of work and outside of work” (p.34).

The research team of the Instituto de Sociologia and Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto involved in this project was formed by Luís Machado, Vanessa Rodrigues, José Madureira Pinto, Claúdia Pereira, Marta Santos, Liliana Cunha, Bruno Monteiro and Marianne Lacomblez.

To access the full study, please click on the link below.