Working in extreme heat : how the scientific community and trade unions build knowledge about climate risks

Following the frameworks of action theory and public sociology (Touraine, 1993; Burawoy, 2005), this paper investigates how the scientific community, trade unions, and social movements co-produce knowledge on extreme heat as an occupational risk, shaping prevention systems through collective knowledge, ordinances, protocols, and regulatory interventions. Drawing on the Italian findings of the European project Adaptheat, the research combines desk-based analysis with two case studies (agriculture and transport sector). The study shows how the interplay between scientific evidence and collective mobilisation has rendered heat-related risks publicly visible, laying the groundwork for institutional and organisational responses. Workers' participation and trade union representation emerge as crucial resources in the generation of situated knowledge and the design of context-sensitive solutions. The research shows the cultural nature of the conflicts on health and climate change with an impact both at social and

scientific level. The analysis also highlights structural constraints that limit the diffusion of such practices in non-unionised contexts. [Publisher's text]