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{{Short description|Lacking in predictability, job security, material or psychological welfare}} |
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{{Labor|sp=us}} |
{{Labor|sp=us}} |
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'''Precarity''' (also '''precariousness''') is a precarious existence, lacking in [[predictability]], [[job security]], [[materialism|material]] or [[psychology|psychological]] welfare. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the ''[[precariat]]''. |
'''Precarity''' (also '''precariousness''') is a precarious existence, lacking in [[predictability]], [[job security]], [[materialism|material]] or [[psychology|psychological]] welfare. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the ''[[precariat]]''. |
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==Catholic |
==Catholic Origins== |
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[[Léonce Crenier]], a Catholic [[monk]] who had previously been active as an [[anarcho-communism|anarcho-communist]], may have established the English usage.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} In 1952 the term was documented by [[Dorothy Day]], writing for the [[Catholic Worker Movement]]: |
[[Léonce Crenier]], a Catholic [[monk]] who had previously been active as an [[anarcho-communism|anarcho-communist]], may have established the English usage.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} In 1952 the term was documented by [[Dorothy Day]], writing for the [[Catholic Worker Movement]]: |
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{{ |
{{blockquote|True poverty is rare ... Nowadays communities are good, I am sure, but they are mistaken about poverty. They accept, admit on principle, poverty, but everything must be good and strong, buildings must be fireproof, Precarity is rejected everywhere, and precarity is an essential element of poverty. That has been forgotten. Here we want precarity in everything except the church. ... Precarity enables us to help very much the poor. When a community is always building, and enlarging, and embellishing, which is good in itself, there is nothing left over for the poor. We have no right to do this as long as there are slums and breadlines somewhere.|Anonymous Martinican priest, as quoted by Dorothy Day|''The Catholic Worker'', May 1952<ref>[http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/articles/633.html] "Poverty and Precarity", ''The Catholic Worker'', May 1952, by Dorothy Day</ref>}} |
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== |
==Theories== |
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{{Original research|date=October 2014}} |
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| ⚫ | While [[contingent labor]] has been a constant of capitalist societies since the industrial revolution, [[Michael Hardt]] and [[Antonio Negri]] have argued<ref>Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, ''Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire'', New York: Penguin Press, 2004.</ref> that the flexible labor force has now moved from the peripheral position it had under [[Fordism]] to a core position in the process of capitalist accumulation under [[Post-Fordism]], which is thought to be increasingly based on the casualized efforts of affective, creative, [[immaterial labor]]. |
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| ⚫ | It is a term of everyday usage as ''Precariedad'', ''Precariedade'', ''Précarité'', or ''Precarietà'' in a number of European countries, where it refers to the widespread condition of temporary, flexible, contingent, casual, intermittent work in [[postindustrial]] societies |
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For philosopher [[Judith Butler]], all human life is precarious, as all lives can be 'expunged at will or by accident' and precariousness is ineradicably part of [[human nature]]. Precariousness is living socially and recognising that one's life is always in the hands of and dependent upon the other.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Judith |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1007883777 |title=Frames of war : when is life grievable? |publisher=Verso |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-78478-247-4 |location=London |oclc=1007883777}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=McNeilly |first=Kathryn |date=2016-05-26 |title=Livability: Notes on the Thought of Judith Butler |url=https://criticallegalthinking.com/2016/05/26/livability-judith-butler/ |access-date=2023-02-02 |website=Critical Legal Thinking}}</ref> |
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''Precarity'' is a general term to describe how large parts of the population are being subjected to flexible exploitation or ''[[flexicurity|flexploitation]]'' (low pay, high blackmailability, intermittent income, etc.), and existential precariousness (high risk of social exclusion because of low incomes, welfare cuts, high cost of living, etc.) The condition of precarity is said{{citation needed|date=June 2013}} to affect all of [[service sector]] labor in a narrow sense, and the whole of society in a wider sense, but particularly youth, women, and immigrants. |
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{{Blockquote|text=Precarity, on the other hand, describes a few different conditions that pertain to living beings. Anything living can be expunged at will or by accident; and its persistence is in no sense guaranteed. As a result, social and political institutions are designed in part to minimize conditions of precarity, especially within the nation-state|author=Judith Butler|title=Performativity, Precariety and Sexual Politics|source=Lecture given at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. June 8, 2009}} |
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| ⚫ | While [[contingent labor]] has been a constant of capitalist societies since the industrial revolution, [[Michael Hardt]] and [[Antonio Negri]] have argued<ref>Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, ''Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire'', New York: Penguin Press, 2004.</ref> that the flexible labor force has now moved from the peripheral position it had under [[Fordism]] to a core position in the process of capitalist accumulation under [[Post-Fordism]], which is thought to be increasingly based on the casualized efforts of affective, creative, [[immaterial labor]] |
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More problematic is that precarity seems to conflate two categories of workers that are at opposite ends of [[labor market segmentation]] in postindustrial economies: pink collars working in retail and low-end services (cleaners, janitors, etc.) under |
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constrictive but standardized employment norms; and young talent temping for cheap in the information economy of big cities around the world: the [[creative class]] of strongly individualistic workers illustrated by managerial literature.{{Original research inline|date=October 2014}} |
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| ⚫ | In [[sociology]], ''precariat'' refers to the [[social class]] formed by people with no [[job security]], or no prospect of regular employment, distinct from the [[lumpenproletariat]]. The term is a [[neologism]] obtained by merging ''precarious'' with [[proletariat]].<ref>F. Lunning (2010).[https://books.google.com/books?id=5d0Q9fdinQUC&dq=precariat+proletariat&pg=PA252 '' Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies'']. University of Minnesota Press. p. 252. {{ISBN|081667387X}}.</ref> |
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| ⚫ | The precariat class has been emerging in advanced societies such as Japan, where it includes over 20 million so-called "[[freeter]]s".<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Osawa |first1=Machiko |last2=Kingston |first2=Jeff |date=2010-07-01 |title=Japan has to address the 'precariat' |newspaper=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/359fa9a8-8545-11df-9c2f-00144feabdc0}}</ref> The young precariat class in Europe became a serious issue in the early part of the 21st century.<ref>Press Europe: Sept 15, 2011: The "Youthful members of the full-time precariat [http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/953511-youthful-members-full-time-precariat]</ref> |
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It also remains to be seen whether the insider–outsider division that economists observe in European labor markets means that the young, precarious, non-voting, and non-owning outsiders have fundamentally conflicting aims with respect to older insiders, who tend to work full-time, long-term contracts, enjoy relatively high pension benefits and who command a disproportionate weight in European public opinion and political debate.{{Original research inline|date=October 2014}} |
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== Precarious Lives == |
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For Butler, while all lives are equally defined by precariousness, some lives are more precarious. In ''Frames of War'', this is illustrated in the political cultures of post-[[September 11 attacks|9/11]] America: some lives are not grievable because they are not first recognised as living. Social norms and institutions maximise the precariousness of some and minimise that of others.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> |
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| ⚫ | Around 2000, the word started being used in its English usage by some [[global justice movement]] (sometimes identified with [[antiglobalization]]) activists (''Marches Européennes contre le chômage la précarité et les exclusions'' - European Marches against unemployment, precarity and social exclusion), and also in [[European Union|EU]] official reports on [[social welfare]]. But it was in the strikes of young part-timers at [[McDonald's]] and [[Pizza Hut]] in winter 2000, that the first political union network emerged in Europe explicitly devoted to fighting precarity: Stop Précarité, with links to AC!, [[Confédération Générale du Travail|CGT]], SUD, [[Confédération nationale du travail|CNT]], [[Trotsky]]ists and other elements of the French radical left.<ref>Abdel Mabrouki, ''Génération précaire'', Le Cherche Midi, 2004.</ref> |
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Precarity is rooted in social dynamics related to gender, social class and inequality.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Grenier |first1=Amanda |title=PRECARITY AND AGEING Understanding Insecurity and Risk in Later Life |last2=Phillipson |first2=Chris |last3=Settersen Jr |first3=Richard A |publisher=Policy Press, An Imprint Of Bristol University Press |year=2021 |location=Bristol |pages=19–40}}</ref> |
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In 2001 the Italian collectives and networks identifying with the global justice movement, as they were preparing for the [[Genoa]] counter-summit just months away, inaugurated in [[Milan]] a new kind of first of May, MAYDAY, spelling it like the [[Mayday (distress signal)|international call for rescue]], and explicitly centering it on the street representation of the so-called "precarious generation." It employed [[carnival]]-like techniques of agitation (allegorical wagons, media subvertising, colorful actions etc.) in imitation of [[gay pride]]s and love parades of the 1990s. Italian activists meant it as a revival of the [[wobbly|Wobblies’]] traditions of [[May Day]],{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} and consequently as a break with traditional union representation and social-democratic compromise that had allowed precarity and social insecurity to spread unchecked to reach critical levels in all of Europe, thus repeating the experience of UK and US economies with a few years' lag. |
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== Precarity in Old Age == |
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By 2003, the event had grown exponentially{{citation needed|date=February 2017}} in size, and Catalan global justice activists participated as non-neutral observers. In 2004, activists in [[Barcelona]] joined the Mayday efforts, as delegations of French "Intermittents" participated as guests of honor in both Mayday parades. The same year saw the launch of the [[icon]] of ''San Precario'', [[patron saint]] of the struggle against precarity. The religious imagery proved very popular in [[Italy]] and elsewhere, and would colonize the mainstream mediascape in the following years.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} By virtue of all these developments, Mayday 2004 drew 80,000 young protesters from all over Italy. This attracted attention from other parts of [[Europe]]. |
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Later life is a time of heightened precarity. There are certain factors of later life that are unpredictable. This is contingent on health, resources and life itself: if a person is still alive and healthy, can manage financially, can live independently, have support from children, and so on,<ref name=":2" /> their precarity can be greatly lessened. But that is not the reality for many old folks. Life transitions are a source of precarity, even the positive ones because it places the notion of self and social roles in flux. When there is an alteration to a person's support network it places them in a position of social precarity.<ref name=":2" /> The timing and duration of the shift determines the experience or consequences of the stage of precarity. Culturally, some transitions may be socially contested or negatively sanctioned (such as same-sex marriage) and therefore create precarity through marginalization, support networks are limited, or they are denied legal protections.<ref name=":2" /> This has a heightened impact on older folks because their identity is primarily being old, which causes some people to take a limited view about their ability to experience other social situations, and denies the intersectionality of their lived reality. |
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Demography interacts with gender to create different worlds of precast for ageing women and men. There are different standards enforced by the gender binary and are weaponized against old folks to measure their ageing process. Because of this precarity is impacted by gender and age at the same time. For example, there are cultural differences that dictate the evaluation of ageing bodies, including the 'double standard' of ageing in which the physical signs of ageing often accentuate a man's social capital but for women take it away. This creates precarity for women because it results in harsher self and social judgements, and undermines their well-being. Although the double standard disadvantages women, ageing can also bring a loss of 'male attractiveness,' because of the cultural premium on youthfulness. Physical frailty may be harder for men, because they place a premium on strength and independence.<ref name=":2" /> |
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===EuroMayDay=== |
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{{unreferenced section|date=February 2015}} |
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In October 2004, libertarian and syndicalist collectives from across Europe gathered at Middlesex University at "Beyond ESF" (a critical reference to the [[European Social Forum]] that was being held in London at the same time) in order to give life to a unified European May Day of precarious and migrant workers: '''EUROMAYDAY''', which involved a dozen [[Western Europe]]an cities in 2005, and about twenty in 2006, with Milan, Paris, Helsinki, Hamburg, and Sevilla among the most lively nodes. In 2006, the mayday process was launched in [[Brussels]] on [[Good Friday]] with a few hundred activists from Belgium, France, Italy, and Germany protesting against pro-business lobbies in Europe: "no borders, no precarity: fuck the new inequality!". |
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== Combatting Precarity == |
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The [[EuroMayDay]] network has gathered several times across the EU to discuss in its assemblies common actions against precarity and mobilizations against the persecution of immigrants, and particularly the segregation of undocumented migrants in detention centers all over Europe. EuroMayDay demands the full adoption of the EU directive on temporary workers being blocked by the [[Barroso Commission]], as well as a European minimum wage and basic income. Cyber and queer rights are also part of the mayday deliberations and activities. |
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===Rebelling against precarity in France and Denmark=== |
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| ⚫ | Around 2000, the word started being used in its English usage by some [[global justice movement]] (sometimes identified with [[antiglobalization]]) activists (''Marches Européennes contre le chômage la précarité et les exclusions'' - European Marches against unemployment, precarity and social exclusion), and also in [[European Union|EU]] official reports on [[social welfare]]. But it was in the strikes of young part-timers at [[McDonald's]] and [[Pizza Hut]] in winter 2000, that the first political union network emerged in Europe explicitly devoted to fighting precarity: Stop Précarité, with links to AC!, [[Confédération Générale du Travail|CGT]], SUD, [[Confédération nationale du travail|CNT]], [[Trotsky]]ists and other elements of the French radical left.<ref>Abdel Mabrouki, ''Génération précaire'', Le Cherche Midi, 2004.</ref> |
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{{unreferenced section|date=February 2015}} |
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A core constituency of mayday has been the movement of [[Intermittents]], the French expression to refer to stage hands and showbiz personnel. In 2002–2005, the Intermittents captured the French imagination and filled the press with their inventive rebellious tactics (e.g. they disrupted live TV news programs and the 2004 edition of the Cannes festival) denouncing precarity in the form of cuts to their [[unemployment benefits]] (they counterproposed an alternative reform of the system which was so well crafted that put French élites and union leaders in an awkward position). |
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In the early months of 2006, French youth rejected the CPE, the first-job contract introduced by the government who made it easier to fire workers under age 26. Clashes with the riot police, as it reclaimed Sorbonne from occupying students was the signal that something major |
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was happening, as the university had been the epicenter of social insurgence in 1968. Four decades later, France was again paralyzed by huge student demonstrations and solidarity strikes called by the major French unions, as well as the more militant unions and organizations. With the vast majority of French universities occupied for more than a month, and the whole nation on strike, the [[Villepin]] government was forced to withdraw the provision, in a test of force with democracy in the streets that weakened the presidency itself. ''Le Monde'' commented that "précarité" was going to be a central issue in the upcoming 2007 presidential elections. |
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A few months before, France had been rocked by generalized rioting of the French youth of Arab and African descent in its suburban ghettos (''cités''), who sought to express angst at racial and economic discrimination that they were experiencing from the rest of French society. Although expressions of the same national malaise and social anguish, banlieue rioters and student protesters did not really share tactics and demands. The French explosion of 2006 against precarity was followed a few months later by a lengthy general strike in [[Denmark]] to protest against welfare cuts especially discriminatory with respect to young people. All universities were occupied, and the right-wing government was forced to withdraw the provisions that had to do with student subsidies and other welfare benefits for young people, although it retained pension cuts for older employees. |
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==="San Precario"=== |
==="San Precario"=== |
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February 29 is the [[feast day]] of San Precario, the [[patron saint]] of precarious workers, who – together with his feast day – was created by the |
February 29 is the [[feast day]] of San Precario, the [[patron saint]] of precarious workers, who – together with his feast day – was created by the Chainworkers at the [[Milan]]ese space Reload where the 2004 EuroMayDay was organised with others, including the [[Critical Mass (cycling)|Critical Mass]] group. The Milan Critical Mass already had its own patron saint, "Santa Graziella" (''[[:it:Graziella (bicicletta)|Graziella]]'' is the brand name of a popular Italian [[folding bicycle]]). |
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San Precario was originally conceived as a male saint |
San Precario was originally conceived as a male saint.<ref>(Romano, 2004)</ref>{{Incomplete short citation|date=February 2023}} The saint's first public appearance was at a Sunday supermarket opening on February 29, 2004: |
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<blockquote>A statue was carried in the streets, preceded by assorted clergy including a cardinal reciting prayers over a loudspeaker, and followed by pious people.<ref name="journal.fibreculture.org">Marcello Tarì and Ilaria Vanni. [http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue5/vanni_tari.html "On the Life and Deeds of San Precario, Patron Saint of Precarious Workers and Lives"]. ''The Fibreculture Journal'' '''5''', 2005. Retrieved March 1, 2009.</ref></blockquote> |
<blockquote>A statue was carried in the streets, preceded by assorted clergy including a cardinal reciting prayers over a loudspeaker, and followed by pious people.<ref name="journal.fibreculture.org">Marcello Tarì and Ilaria Vanni. [http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue5/vanni_tari.html "On the Life and Deeds of San Precario, Patron Saint of Precarious Workers and Lives"]. ''The Fibreculture Journal'' '''5''', 2005. Retrieved March 1, 2009.</ref></blockquote> |
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ChainWorkers then performed a hoax during the 2005 [[Milan Fashion Week]], creating a fictive stylist, Serpica Naro,<ref>[http://www.chainworkers.org/SERPICANARO/index.html Serpica Naro] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202182925/http://www.chainworkers.org/SERPICANARO/index.html |date=2012-12-02 |
ChainWorkers then performed a hoax during the 2005 [[Milan Fashion Week]], creating a fictive stylist, Serpica Naro,<ref>[http://www.chainworkers.org/SERPICANARO/index.html Serpica Naro] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202182925/http://www.chainworkers.org/SERPICANARO/index.html |date=2012-12-02}}</ref> whose name was an anagram of "San Precario".<ref>{{cite news |title=Abbiamo creato Serpica Naro in 7 giorni e con pochi soldi |author=Rosaria Amato |url=http://www.repubblica.it/2005/b/sezioni/spettacoli_e_cultura/modanoglobal/intervistaserpica/intervistaserpica.html |newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] |date=February 26, 2005 |access-date=April 7, 2013}}</ref> According to the groups, the name functions like a multiple user name or myth such as [[Luther Blissett (nom de plume)|Luther Blissett]] and quote the [[Wu Ming]] collective in giving theoretical coherence, although it is mostly seen as a [[détournement]] of the [[Catholic]] concept of patron saints.<ref name="journal.fibreculture.org" /> |
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The groups claim that the name functions like a multiple user name or myth such as [[Luther Blissett (nom de plume)|Luther Blissett]] and quote the [[Wu Ming]] collective in giving theoretical coherence, although it is mostly seen as a [[détournement]] of the [[Catholic]] concept of patron saints.<ref name="journal.fibreculture.org"/> |
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| ⚫ | In [[sociology]], ''precariat'' refers to the [[social class]] formed by people with no [[job security]], or no prospect of regular employment, distinct from the [[lumpenproletariat]]. The term is a [[neologism]] obtained by merging ''precarious'' with [[proletariat]].<ref>F. Lunning (2010).[https://books.google.com/books?id=5d0Q9fdinQUC |
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| ⚫ | The precariat class has been emerging in advanced societies such as Japan, where it includes over 20 million so-called "[[freeter]]s |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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*[[Christian anarchism]] |
*[[Christian anarchism]] |
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*[[Directive on services in the internal market]], also known as "Bolkestein Directive". |
*[[Directive on services in the internal market]], also known as "Bolkestein Directive". |
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*[[Endo contractualization]] |
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*[[First Employment Contract]] (CPE) |
*[[First Employment Contract]] (CPE) |
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*[[Flexicurity]] |
*[[Flexicurity]] |
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*[[ |
*[[Gig worker]] |
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*[[Labour market flexibility]] |
*[[Labour market flexibility]] |
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*[[McJob]] |
*[[McJob]] |
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== References == |
== References == |
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{{reflist|2}} |
{{reflist|2}} |
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* {{cite journal |last = Bailey |first = Geoff |author2=Kyle Brown |title = The rise of the "precariat"? |journal = Socialist Worker |date = 2012-03-01 |url = http://socialistworker.org/print/2012/03/01/rise-of-the-precariat |
* {{cite journal |last = Bailey |first = Geoff |author2=Kyle Brown |title = The rise of the "precariat"? |journal = Socialist Worker |date = 2012-03-01 |url = http://socialistworker.org/print/2012/03/01/rise-of-the-precariat}} |
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==Bibliography== |
==Bibliography== |
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* Grenier, Amanda, Chris Phillipson, and Richard A Settersten (2021) ''Precarity and Ageing : Understanding Insecurity and Risk in Later Life''. Bristol: Policy Press, An Imprint Of Bristol University Press. |
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* [[Guy Standing (economist)|Standing, Guy]] (2011) ''The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class'' {{ISBN|1-84966-351-3}} (Bloomsbury Academic) |
* [[Guy Standing (economist)|Standing, Guy]] (2011) ''The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class'' {{ISBN|1-84966-351-3}} (Bloomsbury Academic) |
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* Thörnquist, Annette & Engstrand, Åsa-Karin (eds.) (2011) ''Precarious Employment in Perspective. Old and New Challenges to Working Conditions in Sweden''. Work & Society. Vol. 70. Bruxelles: Peter Lang. {{ISBN|978-90-5201-730-3}} |
* Thörnquist, Annette & Engstrand, Åsa-Karin (eds.) (2011) ''Precarious Employment in Perspective. Old and New Challenges to Working Conditions in Sweden''. Work & Society. Vol. 70. Bruxelles: Peter Lang. {{ISBN|978-90-5201-730-3}} |
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* [[Isabell Lorey|Lorey, Isabell]]. (2015) {{cite book| translator-last = Derieg | translator-first = Aileen |title=State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious |location=London |publisher=Verso |isbn=9781781685969}} |
* [[Isabell Lorey|Lorey, Isabell]]. (2015) {{cite book| translator-last = Derieg | translator-first = Aileen |title=State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious |location=London |publisher=Verso |isbn=9781781685969| year = 2015}} |
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{{Wikiquote}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Wiktionary|precarity}} |
{{Wiktionary|precarity}} |
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* http://eipcp.net/transversal/0704 |
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* http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue5/neilson_rossiter.html |
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* http://www.republicart.net/disc/precariat/index.htm |
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* https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2007/04/france_the_prec.html |
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{{Organized labor}} |
{{Organized labor}} |
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[[Category:Economic sociology]] |
[[Category:Economic sociology]] |
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[[Category:Feminism and social class]] |
[[Category:Feminism and social class]] |
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[[Category:Industrial Workers of the World]] |
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[[Category:Labor disputes]] |
[[Category:Labor disputes]] |
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[[Category:Labor history]] |
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[[Category:Labor relations]] |
[[Category:Labor relations]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Poverty]] |
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[[Category:Working conditions]] |
[[Category:Working conditions]] |
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Latest revision as of 23:02, 12 November 2024
| Part of a series on |
| Organized labor |
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Precarity (also precariousness) is a precarious existence, lacking in predictability, job security, material or psychological welfare. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the precariat.
Catholic Origins
[edit]Léonce Crenier, a Catholic monk who had previously been active as an anarcho-communist, may have established the English usage.[citation needed] In 1952 the term was documented by Dorothy Day, writing for the Catholic Worker Movement:
True poverty is rare ... Nowadays communities are good, I am sure, but they are mistaken about poverty. They accept, admit on principle, poverty, but everything must be good and strong, buildings must be fireproof, Precarity is rejected everywhere, and precarity is an essential element of poverty. That has been forgotten. Here we want precarity in everything except the church. ... Precarity enables us to help very much the poor. When a community is always building, and enlarging, and embellishing, which is good in itself, there is nothing left over for the poor. We have no right to do this as long as there are slums and breadlines somewhere.
— Anonymous Martinican priest, as quoted by Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker, May 1952[1]
Theories
[edit]It is a term of everyday usage as Precariedad, Precariedade, Précarité, or Precarietà in a number of European countries, where it refers to the widespread condition of temporary, flexible, contingent, casual, intermittent work in postindustrial societies.
While contingent labor has been a constant of capitalist societies since the industrial revolution, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have argued[2] that the flexible labor force has now moved from the peripheral position it had under Fordism to a core position in the process of capitalist accumulation under Post-Fordism, which is thought to be increasingly based on the casualized efforts of affective, creative, immaterial labor.
For philosopher Judith Butler, all human life is precarious, as all lives can be 'expunged at will or by accident' and precariousness is ineradicably part of human nature. Precariousness is living socially and recognising that one's life is always in the hands of and dependent upon the other.[3][4]
Precarity, on the other hand, describes a few different conditions that pertain to living beings. Anything living can be expunged at will or by accident; and its persistence is in no sense guaranteed. As a result, social and political institutions are designed in part to minimize conditions of precarity, especially within the nation-state
— Judith Butler, Performativity, Precariety and Sexual Politics, Lecture given at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. June 8, 2009
Precariat
[edit]In sociology, precariat refers to the social class formed by people with no job security, or no prospect of regular employment, distinct from the lumpenproletariat. The term is a neologism obtained by merging precarious with proletariat.[5]
The precariat class has been emerging in advanced societies such as Japan, where it includes over 20 million so-called "freeters".[6] The young precariat class in Europe became a serious issue in the early part of the 21st century.[7]
Precarious Lives
[edit]For Butler, while all lives are equally defined by precariousness, some lives are more precarious. In Frames of War, this is illustrated in the political cultures of post-9/11 America: some lives are not grievable because they are not first recognised as living. Social norms and institutions maximise the precariousness of some and minimise that of others.[3][4]
Precarity is rooted in social dynamics related to gender, social class and inequality.[8]
Precarity in Old Age
[edit]Later life is a time of heightened precarity. There are certain factors of later life that are unpredictable. This is contingent on health, resources and life itself: if a person is still alive and healthy, can manage financially, can live independently, have support from children, and so on,[8] their precarity can be greatly lessened. But that is not the reality for many old folks. Life transitions are a source of precarity, even the positive ones because it places the notion of self and social roles in flux. When there is an alteration to a person's support network it places them in a position of social precarity.[8] The timing and duration of the shift determines the experience or consequences of the stage of precarity. Culturally, some transitions may be socially contested or negatively sanctioned (such as same-sex marriage) and therefore create precarity through marginalization, support networks are limited, or they are denied legal protections.[8] This has a heightened impact on older folks because their identity is primarily being old, which causes some people to take a limited view about their ability to experience other social situations, and denies the intersectionality of their lived reality.
Demography interacts with gender to create different worlds of precast for ageing women and men. There are different standards enforced by the gender binary and are weaponized against old folks to measure their ageing process. Because of this precarity is impacted by gender and age at the same time. For example, there are cultural differences that dictate the evaluation of ageing bodies, including the 'double standard' of ageing in which the physical signs of ageing often accentuate a man's social capital but for women take it away. This creates precarity for women because it results in harsher self and social judgements, and undermines their well-being. Although the double standard disadvantages women, ageing can also bring a loss of 'male attractiveness,' because of the cultural premium on youthfulness. Physical frailty may be harder for men, because they place a premium on strength and independence.[8]
Combatting Precarity
[edit]Global Justice Movement
[edit]Around 2000, the word started being used in its English usage by some global justice movement (sometimes identified with antiglobalization) activists (Marches Européennes contre le chômage la précarité et les exclusions - European Marches against unemployment, precarity and social exclusion), and also in EU official reports on social welfare. But it was in the strikes of young part-timers at McDonald's and Pizza Hut in winter 2000, that the first political union network emerged in Europe explicitly devoted to fighting precarity: Stop Précarité, with links to AC!, CGT, SUD, CNT, Trotskyists and other elements of the French radical left.[9]
"San Precario"
[edit]February 29 is the feast day of San Precario, the patron saint of precarious workers, who – together with his feast day – was created by the Chainworkers at the Milanese space Reload where the 2004 EuroMayDay was organised with others, including the Critical Mass group. The Milan Critical Mass already had its own patron saint, "Santa Graziella" (Graziella is the brand name of a popular Italian folding bicycle).
San Precario was originally conceived as a male saint.[10][incomplete short citation] The saint's first public appearance was at a Sunday supermarket opening on February 29, 2004:
A statue was carried in the streets, preceded by assorted clergy including a cardinal reciting prayers over a loudspeaker, and followed by pious people.[11]
ChainWorkers then performed a hoax during the 2005 Milan Fashion Week, creating a fictive stylist, Serpica Naro,[12] whose name was an anagram of "San Precario".[13] According to the groups, the name functions like a multiple user name or myth such as Luther Blissett and quote the Wu Ming collective in giving theoretical coherence, although it is mostly seen as a détournement of the Catholic concept of patron saints.[11]
See also
[edit]- Catholic social teaching
- Christian anarchism
- Directive on services in the internal market, also known as "Bolkestein Directive".
- Endo contractualization
- First Employment Contract (CPE)
- Flexicurity
- Gig worker
- Labour market flexibility
- McJob
- New Employment Contract (CNE)
- Precarious work
- Tenure
- Wage slavery
References
[edit]- ^ [1] "Poverty and Precarity", The Catholic Worker, May 1952, by Dorothy Day
- ^ Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
- ^ a b Butler, Judith (2009). Frames of war : when is life grievable?. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-78478-247-4. OCLC 1007883777.
- ^ a b McNeilly, Kathryn (2016-05-26). "Livability: Notes on the Thought of Judith Butler". Critical Legal Thinking. Retrieved 2023-02-02.
- ^ F. Lunning (2010). Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies. University of Minnesota Press. p. 252. ISBN 081667387X.
- ^ Osawa, Machiko; Kingston, Jeff (2010-07-01). "Japan has to address the 'precariat'". Financial Times.
- ^ Press Europe: Sept 15, 2011: The "Youthful members of the full-time precariat [2]
- ^ a b c d e Grenier, Amanda; Phillipson, Chris; Settersen Jr, Richard A (2021). PRECARITY AND AGEING Understanding Insecurity and Risk in Later Life. Bristol: Policy Press, An Imprint Of Bristol University Press. pp. 19–40.
- ^ Abdel Mabrouki, Génération précaire, Le Cherche Midi, 2004.
- ^ (Romano, 2004)
- ^ a b Marcello Tarì and Ilaria Vanni. "On the Life and Deeds of San Precario, Patron Saint of Precarious Workers and Lives". The Fibreculture Journal 5, 2005. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
- ^ Serpica Naro Archived 2012-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Rosaria Amato (February 26, 2005). "Abbiamo creato Serpica Naro in 7 giorni e con pochi soldi". La Repubblica. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
- Bailey, Geoff; Kyle Brown (2012-03-01). "The rise of the "precariat"?". Socialist Worker.
Bibliography
[edit]- Grenier, Amanda, Chris Phillipson, and Richard A Settersten (2021) Precarity and Ageing : Understanding Insecurity and Risk in Later Life. Bristol: Policy Press, An Imprint Of Bristol University Press.
- Standing, Guy (2011) The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class ISBN 1-84966-351-3 (Bloomsbury Academic)
- Thörnquist, Annette & Engstrand, Åsa-Karin (eds.) (2011) Precarious Employment in Perspective. Old and New Challenges to Working Conditions in Sweden. Work & Society. Vol. 70. Bruxelles: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-90-5201-730-3
- Lorey, Isabell. (2015) State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious. Translated by Derieg, Aileen. London: Verso. 2015. ISBN 9781781685969.
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