Faces of Precarity
Critical Perspectives on Work, Subjectivities and Struggles
Edited by Joseph Choonara, Annalisa Murgia and Renato Miguel Carmo
Published
Aug 8, 2022Page count
256 pagesISBN
978-1529220070Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Aug 8, 2022Page count
256 pagesISBN
978-1529220087Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Aug 8, 2022Page count
256 pagesISBN
978-1529220087Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
Faces of Precarity
The words ‘precarity’ and ‘precariousness’ are widely used when discussing work, social conditions and experiences. However, there is no consensus on their meaning or how best to use them to explore social changes.
This book shows how scholars have mapped out these notions, offering substantive analyses of issues such as the relationships between precariousness, debt, migration, health and workers’ mobilizations, and how these relationships have changed in the context of COVID-19.
Bringing together an international group of authors from diverse fields, this book offers a distinctive critical perspective on the processes of precarization, focusing in particular on the European context.
The Introduction, Chapters 3 and 8, and the Afterword are available Open Access via OAPEN under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
"Persuasively ranging from comprehensive analysis to detailed case studies, this is the single most up-to-date survey of the jagged landscape of 21st-century work and the volatile social economy that orbits around it." Andrew Ross, New York University
“Precarity has not gone away with platform capitalism; it has only got worse. Analytically striking and empirically rich, this book takes us to the frontlines of labour struggles tied to migration, gig work, social movements and political organization.” Ned Rossiter, Western Sydney University
Joseph Choonara is Lecturer in the School of Business at the University of Leicester, UK.
Renato Miguel Carmo is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal.
Annalisa Murgia is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan, Italy, where she coordinates the ERC project SHARE.
1. Introduction: Critical Perspectives on Precarity and Precariousness ~ Joseph Choonara, Annalisa Murgia and Renato Miguel Carmo
Part I: Conceptualisations, Subjectivities and Etymologies
2. Précarité and Precarity: The Amazing Transnational Journey of Two Notions Unable to Form a Proper Concept in English ~ Jean-Claude Barbier
3. Conceptualising Precariousness: A Subject-oriented Approach ~ Emiliana Armano, Cristina Morini and Annalisa Murgia
4. The Experience of Precariousness as Vulnerable Time ~ André Barata and Renato Miguel Carmo
Part II: Class, Work and Employment
5. Above-Below, Inside-Outside: Precarity, Underclass and Social Exclusion in Demobilised Class Societies ~Klaus Dörre
6. Class, Classification and Conjunctures: The Use of ‘Precarity’ in Social Research ~ Charles Umney
7. The Problem with Precarity: Precarious Employment and Labour Markets ~ Joseph Choonara
8. The Social Foundations of Precarious Work: The Role of Unpaid Labour in the Family ~ Valeria Pulignano and Glenn Morgan
9. Precariousness in the Platform Economy ~ Agnieszka Piasna
10. An Epidemic-Related Turning Point: Precarious Work, Platforms and Utopian Energies ~ Patrick Cingolani
Part III: Experiences, Concretisations and Struggles
11. The Embodiment of Insecurity: How Precarious Labour Market Trajectories Affect Young Workers’ Health and Wellbeing in Catalonia (Spain) ~ Mireia Bolíbar, Francesc X. Belvis and Mariana Gutiérrez-Zamora
12. Precarity and Migration: Thai Wild Berry Pickers in Sweden ~ Charlotta Hedberg
13. Revisiting the Concept of Precarious Work in Times of Covid-19 ~ Barbora Holubová and Marta Kahancová
14. Precarious Workers and Precarity Through the Lenses of Social Movement Studies ~ Alice Mattoni
15. Organising and Self-organised Precarious Workers: The Experience of Britain ~ Jane Hardy
16. Afterword: A Pandemic of Precarity ~ Joseph Choonara, Annalisa Murgia and Renato Miguel Carmo
