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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2005.01.020 Byline: Nancy Theberge (a)(c), Kara Granzow (b), Donald Cole (c)(d), Andrew Laing (a)(e) Keywords: Participatory ergonomics; Qualitative methods; Musculoskeletal disorders Abstract: In participatory ergonomic (PE) interventions, 'how' effective participation by workplace parties can be achieved remains unclear. We conducted a case study of the dynamics of an ergonomic change team (ECT) process in a medium-sized (175 employees) automotive foam manufacturing plant. We present analyses of observer field notes and post-intervention interviews from which key elements on the dynamics of the 'how' emerged: (1) impacts of facilitators' involvement and interests; (2) tensions in delimiting the scope of ECT activities; issues around (3) managing meetings and (4) realizing labour and management participation; and (5) workplace ECT members' difficulties in juggling other job commitments and facing production pressures. We highlight the ongoing negotiated nature of responses to these challenges by labour, management and ergonomic facilitator members of the ECT. We argue for greater examination of the social dynamics of PE processes to identify additional ways of fostering participation in ergonomic project implementation. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1 (b) Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, 5-21 H.M. Tory Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H4 (c) Institute for Work & Health, 481 University Avenue, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5G 2E9 (d) Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, McMurrich Building, 12 Queen's Park Crescent West, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8 (e) School of Kinesiology, 8888 University Ave, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 1S6 Article History: Received 15 November 2003; Accepted 16 January 2005

In this paper, we discuss an assignment we developed with the goal to "unsettle" settler consciousness and critically foster a grounded politics of location amongst our postsecondary students. We analyze some of the important and sundry risks of taking learning from the classroom to the land, focusing on some of the assignment's assumptions, effects, contradictions and complications. Drawing upon Moten & Harney's urging of a "studying with and for," Stuart Hall's "politics without guarantees," and Leanne Simpson's "land as pedagogy," we present our experiment in teaching as an exciting opportunity for learning - one that though rooted in aspirations towards more decolonial presents in our classrooms, is still always also deeply implicated in who gets made as a subject with access to the goods and protections of the colonial present within and outside of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we present a qualitative analysis of worker involvement in a participatory project to improve occupational health and safety at a Canadian manufacturing site. Based on interviews with workers in the plant, we consider the manner and degree to which workers experienced meaningful participation in the intervention process and some of the main barriers to worker participation. Findings emphasize the importance of the social and political context in conditioning the dynamics of joint management labor ventures specifically in relation to health initiatives. Interviews revealed few instances in which workers felt included in the participatory initiative; most often they felt marginalized. In the absence of structural change in the plant, workers described the health initiative as seriously limited in its ability to render meaningful worker participation. These results extend beyond this analysis of a participatory workplace health initiative, offering insights into the dynamics of institutional participatory process, and into participatory research practice generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]