Slow Infrastructural Violence: The Lived Experiences of Urban Essential Workers

Abstract

Abstract We examine how non‐healthcare urban essential workers constitute a vital yet undervalued social infrastructure that enables everyday life in Switzerland. Drawing on 37 (walking) interviews, the study foregrounds the lived realities of those whose reproductive labour sustains the city while remaining largely invisible. We use the concept of slow infrastructural violence to explore how urban inequalities – rooted in gender, class, race and migration status – structure essential workers' experiences. We develop a conceptual framework of slow infrastructural violence structured along four interrelated dimensions: invisibility (lack of recognition and respect), embodied strain (occupational exhaustion, stress, and health impacts), economic precarity (low wages and insecurities) and exclusion from essential urban care infrastructures (such as affordable housing and childcare). These intertwined dimensions create a mutually reinforcing matrix of disadvantage that perpetuates cycles of marginalisation in urban life. Addressing these conditions in urban policy and planning is crucial for creating more just and caring cities.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2026 · DOI ↗