Ambulancearbejde, sikkerhed og maskuline rekonfigurationer: Etnografiske fortællinger om kulturelle praksisser under forandring

Abstract

Trods den vedvarende konnede ulighed i forekomsten af arbejdsulykker og utallige studiers beskrivelser af sammenhaeng mellem maskulinitet og risikoadfaerd, har kun ganske fa studier undersogt sammenhaengen mellem maends kons- og sikkerhedspraksis pa arbejde. Baseret pa 575 timers etnografisk feltarbejde og 20 interviews med mandlige ambulancereddere belyser denne artikel nogle centrale sammenhaenge mellem mandlige ambulanceredderes maskulinitets- og sikkerhedspraksis. Artiklen viser, hvordan mandlige ambulancereddere bl.a. praktiserer sikkerhed ved at positionere sig i opposition til en kollektiv fortaelling om fortidens ”John Wayne- og Tarzan Syndrom”. Undertiden udtrykkes denne symbolske skillelinje mellem traditionel og moderne maskulinitetspraksis eksplicit, men oftest forekommer den implicit i de mandlige ambulanceredderes kulturelle praksis. Denne kulturelle sikkerheds/ maskulinitets-rekonfiguration indebaerer bl.a., at de mandlige ambulancereddere eksplicit tager afstand fra den maskuline helterolle, som medierne tilskriver dem. En anden made, opgoret med den tidligere maskulinitetspraksis traeder frem i det empiriske materiale, er gennem reddernes udbredte fremhaevelse af det, jeg kalder et ”forlosningsfaellesskab” i forbindelse med kollegial bearbejdning af barske ambulanceopgaver. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Morten Kyed: Emergency Medical Ambulance Work, Safety and Masculine Reconfigurations: Ethnographic Tales about Cultural Practices Undergoing Change Despite the continuing gendered inequality in the incidence of work-related accidents, and countless descriptions of the relationship between masculinity and risk behavior, few studies have examined the relation between male gender and safety practices at work. Based on 575 hours of ethnographic fieldwork and 20 interviews with male EMTs, this article explores some key associations between masculinity and safety practices among male EMTs in Denmark. The article shows how male EMTs practice safety by positioning themselves in opposition to a collective narrative of the past: The ”John Wayne and Tarzan Syndrome”. Sometimes this is expressed explicitly in symbolic boundaries between traditional and modern masculinity practice, but mostly it is expressed implicitly in the male EMTs’ cultural practices. This cultural safety/masculinity reconfiguration involves, inter alia, that the male EMTs explicitly reject the masculine heroic role the media attribute to them. Another way of breaking with former masculinity practices that emerges in the empirical material is the widespread emphasis on what I call a ”community of relief” in the context of collegial processing of harsh ambulance experiences. Keywords: masculinity, safety, practice, ambulance work.