Living and working in spite of antiretroviral therapies: strength in chronicity.

This article is a reflection on the relationship between antiretroviral therapies and work. It is concerned with the impact of biomedical protocols and biotechnologies on the 'lifeworlds' of a small group of seropositive men employed in the construction industry in Milan. Construction workers stand out as a category with specific issues because of their physically demanding jobs and are more subject to the potentially damaging physical consequences of antiretroviral therapies, as data suggest. The article is focused on biomedical rationalities and technologies and interrogates the forms of knowledge and the practices that contribute to reshaping seropositive individuals as 'biological and therapeutic citizens'. At the same time, the relationship between identity and health technologies is explored, examining the individual trajectories and strategies displayed by construction workers in order to cultivate their own ideas of personhood and conception of identity. How they rethink their presence within the work environment is shown in light of drug regimens and through a creative manipulation of antiretroviral therapies.