The Literal and Figurative Structure of Work in Hazardous Worksites

The Literal and Figurative Structure of Work in Hazardous Worksites 

Literary notions like standpoint, situated knowledge, and viewpoint take on literal meaning within the institutional and geographic structure of a mine. 

Miners have developed a rich vocabulary to describe their locations within the geographic and institutional architecture of a hazardous environment. Miners describe their positions inby and outby fixed reference points in geographic space. Miners inby a mine fire must visualize alternative escape routes and must communicate their position to others outby the fire. 

The map in Fig. 41 shows the areas inby and outby the fire at the Wilberg mine. As this map shows, 13 miners were trapped inby the fire because the working face of the mine is the furthest extension away from the exit.-  

The physical structure of a coal mine provides a metaphor for the rhetorical uncertainty of documentation in a hazardous environment. 

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