Violence at work: structural and intersectional dimensions

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: violence is a historical and sociocultural phenomenon that accompanies humanity since its origin. In work contexts, violence has been the object of renewed attention in recent decades due to the incidence of serious problems affecting workers, such as suicides, criminality, and mental and behavioral disorders. Objective: to discuss the structural and intersectional dimensions of work-related violence (WRV). Methods: a theoretical reflection based on scientific literature was carried out. Results: debates on intersectionality enable us to understand psychosocial risks as a result of workers’ interactions with intertwined social processes that refer to power structures, notably cross-cutting relations of class, “race,” and gender, without prejudice to the incorporation of other axes of social differentiation that matter to subjects and to the analysis of work. Conclusion: WRV cannot be properly understood and faced without the evaluation of its different dimensions, the articulations between them, its plural and intersectional manifestations, and its systemic character in the capitalist mode of production.