The builders of cities: prospects for synergy between labour and the built environment

The urban construction workforce faces challenges which can severely affect the current ideals of sustainable and equalitarian cities, let alone the possibilities for large numbers of workers to get out of poverty. These challenges are partially related to the structure of the construction industry and are not addressed by urban policies. At the same time, there are important missing links related to labour in construction in the operationalization of policies that address the challenges of sustainable and inclusive urbanization. It is important to address this situation for the sake of realising a better construction industry and liveable cities. We argue that both additional research and policy innovation that explicitly incorporate the roles of labour in establishing and consolidating both better construction and urban spaces will provide important contributions to filling in some of the missing links.