Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2015): African Sociological Review

8 - Workplace Hazards and Social Positioning Efforts of Male Adolescent Labourers in Suburb Sawmills, Lagos State Nigeria

https://doi.org/10.57054/asr.v19i1.3699
Ojo Melvin Agunbiade
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8566-0662

Corresponding Author(s) : Ojo Melvin Agunbiade

oagunbiade@oauife.edu.ng

African Sociological Review, Vol. 19 No. 1 (2015): African Sociological Review

Abstract

Young people with low socioeconomic background require resilience to survive in a city with
limited opportunities. Unintendedly such efforts sometimes affect their well-being. Such is
the case of adolescent dwelling in some urban suburbs across cultures. Based on sixteen faceto-
face interviews with adolescent boys working as labourers in suburb sawmills; this paper
situates the notion of boyhood and survival into adulthood within a social space. The findings
revealed conscious absorption with the notion of boyhood through certain rules of engagement
and survival measures. These strategies include self-care practices geared towards achieving a
healthy body for contextualised performance in the factory settings. However, this comes with
series of consequences as boys lived out the social notions of boyhood and rules of engagement
in activities for survival and social recognition. Hence, understanding and targeting the
positive survival strategies of this social category of adolescents could be useful to empower and
minimise the hazards of working and growing as adolescents in the physical and social spaces
of sawmills.

Keywords

Sawmills Hazards urban slums boyhood masculinities
Ojo Melvin Agunbiade. (2015). 8 - Workplace Hazards and Social Positioning Efforts of Male Adolescent Labourers in Suburb Sawmills, Lagos State Nigeria. African Sociological Review, 19(1), 88–109. https://doi.org/10.57054/asr.v19i1.3699
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Author Biography

Ojo Melvin Agunbiade

Ojo Melvin Agunbiade is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University. Melvin teaches courses on sociological theory, social research methods, and sociology of health, healing, and Illness. He recently completed a PhD in Health Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The thesis is entitled "Socio-cultural constructions of sexuality and help-seeking behaviour among elderly Yoruba people in urban Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria". His areas of research include sexual health, aging, youth, gender and society, traditional medicine and develop¬ment. He has published in reputable local and international journals.

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