Page 175 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 175
A Respected Profession After All: Work Structures and Self-Perceptions ...
ees are German; a few Portuguese and Turkish workers who arrived in
Hamburg after the 1960s also form part of the sample.1
When I started my research, one dock senior pointed out the misno-
mer of the term dock worker and spoke about workers in the port instead.
He made me aware of the professions’ heterogeneity that stands in harsh
contrast to the homogenous picture often drawn of this occupational
group, to which collective values are frequently ascribed. This image is
related to the development of the organization and the characteristics
of dock work that changed fundamentally in Hamburg after the arrival
of the container. Despite global developments such as containerization,
structures of ports worldwide have not changed homogeneously. Local
ways of organization equally influenced the transformations of ports and
the work carried out (Dubbeld 2003, 118).
In this paper, I sum up some of my central findings concerning the
structural transformation and its influences on the social space (Bourdieu
2006) and former dock workers’ self-perceptions. As occupation, work
structures and habitus are closely interlinked, professional qualifica-
tions strongly influenced their social capital. Specifically, I will focus on
the changed self-awareness and the social and economic advancement of
those workers who qualified for technical work and remained in the port,
highlighting their reflections about habitual behaviour changes.
Exploring the port – an economic and cultural space
The history of the dock workers is closely interwoven with the develop-
ment of the respective port cities and has to be analysed in this context
(Cooper 2000, 539). The texture and character of the city of Hamburg and
its harbour area as a ‘structuring and structured space’ (Hengartner 1999,
16 ff.) appears essential in public representations of dock work as well as
1 The protagonists I spoke to have in several ways incorporated the port history and
firmly identify with it to this point in time. Unfortunately, the voices of countless
persons who lost their jobs, and are not or do not want to be part of this narrative
community for various reasons had to be left out. As my analysis specifically fo-
cuses on cargo handling where women were rarely employed, I did not interview
female protagonists. In my study, I also reflect the fact that the self-positioning
of the interview partners must always be read in relation to their external posi-
tioning. By explaining their former working life to me, an interested young wom-
an with no specific knowledge of dock work and port structures, they consciously
place themselves in the tradition of dock workers and present themselves as such.
175
ees are German; a few Portuguese and Turkish workers who arrived in
Hamburg after the 1960s also form part of the sample.1
When I started my research, one dock senior pointed out the misno-
mer of the term dock worker and spoke about workers in the port instead.
He made me aware of the professions’ heterogeneity that stands in harsh
contrast to the homogenous picture often drawn of this occupational
group, to which collective values are frequently ascribed. This image is
related to the development of the organization and the characteristics
of dock work that changed fundamentally in Hamburg after the arrival
of the container. Despite global developments such as containerization,
structures of ports worldwide have not changed homogeneously. Local
ways of organization equally influenced the transformations of ports and
the work carried out (Dubbeld 2003, 118).
In this paper, I sum up some of my central findings concerning the
structural transformation and its influences on the social space (Bourdieu
2006) and former dock workers’ self-perceptions. As occupation, work
structures and habitus are closely interlinked, professional qualifica-
tions strongly influenced their social capital. Specifically, I will focus on
the changed self-awareness and the social and economic advancement of
those workers who qualified for technical work and remained in the port,
highlighting their reflections about habitual behaviour changes.
Exploring the port – an economic and cultural space
The history of the dock workers is closely interwoven with the develop-
ment of the respective port cities and has to be analysed in this context
(Cooper 2000, 539). The texture and character of the city of Hamburg and
its harbour area as a ‘structuring and structured space’ (Hengartner 1999,
16 ff.) appears essential in public representations of dock work as well as
1 The protagonists I spoke to have in several ways incorporated the port history and
firmly identify with it to this point in time. Unfortunately, the voices of countless
persons who lost their jobs, and are not or do not want to be part of this narrative
community for various reasons had to be left out. As my analysis specifically fo-
cuses on cargo handling where women were rarely employed, I did not interview
female protagonists. In my study, I also reflect the fact that the self-positioning
of the interview partners must always be read in relation to their external posi-
tioning. By explaining their former working life to me, an interested young wom-
an with no specific knowledge of dock work and port structures, they consciously
place themselves in the tradition of dock workers and present themselves as such.
175
