Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
Table of Contents1. 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
