Unique cross-cultural and multimedial approach to class identity and precarity in literature, theatre, and film
Contemporary culture not merely reflects ongoing societal transformations, it shapes ...our understanding of rapidly evolving class realities. Literature, theatre, and film urge us to put the question of class back on the agenda, and reconceptualize it through the lens of precarity and intersectionality. Relying on examples from British, French, Spanish, German, American, Swedish and Taiwanese culture, the contributors to this book document a variety of aesthetic strategies in an interdisciplinary dialogue with sociology and political theory. Doing so, this volume demonstrates the myriad ways in which culture opens up new pathways to imagine and re-imagine class as an economic relation, an identity category, and a subjective experience. Situated firmly within current debates about the impact of social mobility, precarious work, intersectional structures of exploitation, and interspecies vulnerability, this volume offers a wide-ranging panorama of contemporary class imaginaries.
Contributors: Magnus Nilsson (Malmö University), Christian Claesson (Lund University), Christoph Schaub (University of Vechta), Olaf Berwald (Middle Tennessee State University), Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), Lander Vermeerbergen (Radboud University), Markieta Domecka (KU Leuven) Deborah Dean (Warwick University), Sula Textor (Potsdam University), Irene Husser (University of Tübingen), Katrin Becker (University of Siegen), Marissia Fragkou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) Sarah Pogoda (Bangor University), Daniel Brookes (University of Worcester), Tim Christiaens (Tilburg University), Joeri Verbesselt (KU Leuven), Syaman Rapongan (writer).
Ebook available in Open Access. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Exploitation of international migrant workers in the Global North has been increasingly framed in terms of trafficking, in political and legal domains and by the media. Yet posing trafficking as a ...phenomenon that captures the unfreedom experienced by migrants obscures the variegated means through which unfree labour relations are both institutionalized, and related to more ‘mundane’ forms of exploitation including precarious employment (for migrants and non-migrants alike). In this paper we argue that conceptualizing forms of unfreedom along a continuum of labour relations highlights this interrelationship, which for migrant workers includes attempts to harness and control mobilities through immigration regimes that restrict mobility bargaining power within labour markets. We use the example of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in Canada to show how precarious employment, precarious legal status and unfree labour relations interact, and how they are negotiated and contested by of workers themselves.
Objectives The lack of a common definition for precarious employment (PE) severely hampers the comparison of studies within and between countries, consequently reducing the applicability of research ...findings. We carried out a systematic review to summarize how PE has been conceptualized and implemented in research and identify the construct's dimensions in order to facilitate guidance on its operationalization. Methods According to PRISMA guidelines, we searched Web of Science and Scopus for publications with variations of PE in the title or abstract. The search returned 1225 unique entries, which were screened for eligibility. Exclusion criteria were (i) language other than English, (ii) lack of a definition for PE, and (iii) non-original research. A total of 63 full-text articles were included and qualitative thematic-analysis was performed in order to identify dimensions of PE. Results We identified several theory-based definitions of PE developed by previous researchers. Most definitions and operationalizations were either an accommodation to available data or the direct result of qualitative studies identifying themes of PE. The thematic-analysis of the selected articles resulted in a multidimensional construct including the following three dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and lack of rights and protection. Conclusions Despite a growing number of studies on PE, most fail to clearly define the concept, severely restricting the advancement of the research of PE as a social determinant of health. Our combined theoretical and empirical review suggests that a common multidimensional definition could be developed and deployed in different labor market contexts using a variety of methodological approaches.
Employment precariousness is a social determinant that affects the health of workers, families, and communities. Its recent popularity has been spearheaded by three main developments: the surge in ..."flexible employment" and its associated erosion of workers' employment and working conditions since the mid-1970s; the growing interest in social determinants of health, including employment conditions; and the availability of new data and information systems. This article identifies the historical, economic, and political factors that link precarious employment to health and health equity; reviews concepts, models, instruments, and findings on precarious employment and health inequalities; summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of this literature; and highlights substantive and methodological challenges that need to be addressed. We identify two crucial future aims: to provide a compelling research program that expands our understanding of employment precariousness and to develop and evaluate policy programs that effectively put an end to its health-related impacts.
This book examines precarious employment in Europe through the economic crisis. It draws on two main sources: theories of how the financial and debt crisis coupled with labour market reforms to ...exacerbate precarity in the workforce; and data from the European Labour Force Survey from 2005-12, capturing various aspects of precarious employment.
The Dominican Republic has posted impressive economic growth
rates over the past thirty years. Despite this, the generation of
new, good jobs has been remarkably weak. How have ordinary and poor
...Dominicans worked and lived in the shadow of the country's
conspicuous growth rates? This book considers this question through
an ethnographic exploration of the popular economy in the Dominican
capital. Focusing on the city's precarious small businesses,
including furniture manufacturers, food stalls, street-corner
stores, and savings and credit cooperatives, Krohn-Hansen shows how
people make a living, tackle market shifts, and the factors that
characterize their relationship to the state and pervasive
corruption.
Empirically grounded, this book examines the condition of the
urban masses in Santo Domingo, offering an original and captivating
contribution to the scholarship on popular economic practices,
urban changes, and today's Latin America and the Caribbean. This
will be essential reading for scholars and policy makers.
What is the role of conflict in bringing about radical change? Taking the case of the gig economy, we study the conditions of possibility for fairer alternative ways of organising to emerge. ...Currently, some commentators underscore the sense of freedom of working as a self-employed contractor; others focus on its negative and exploitative dimensions. Less attention has been given to the potential emergence of (radical) conflicts around the nature of gig work. Thus, we contribute to the study of conflict in organisation theory by appreciating two different yet interrelated phenomena. First, how neoliberal gig work mobilises positive fantasies of individualised economic prosperity and independence, leading to reformist responses to social and contractual disputes. Second, how the dark side of gig work can trigger radical conflicts, which reject the assumptions underpinning the ‘self-employed contractors’ business model. We argue that the potential for radical (labour) revolts is buffered by neoliberal individualisation and hegemonic ideology – articulated in the phenomenon that we term ‘econormativity’. Yet, as the latter offers no resolution to structural grievances, conflict continues to simmer in the background. The article aims to advance, principally from an organisation studies perspective, our understanding of conflict and its role in unleashing radical alternatives.
How the European Union handles posted workers is a growing issue for a region with borders that really are just lines on a map. A 2008 story, dissected in Ines Wagner's Workers without Borders, about ...the troubling working conditions of migrant meat and construction workers, exposed a distressing dichotomy: how could a country with such strong employers' associations and trade unions allow for the establishment and maintenance of such a precarious labor market segment? Wagner introduces an overlooked piece of the puzzle: re-regulatory politics at the workplace level. She interrogates the position of the posted worker in contemporary European labour markets and the implications of and regulations for this position in industrial relations, social policy and justice in Europe. Workers without Borders concentrates on how local actors implement European rules and opportunities to analyze the balance of power induced by the EU around policy issues. Wagner examines the particularities of posted worker dynamics at the workplace level, in German meatpacking facilities and on construction sites, to reveal the problems and promises of European Union governance as regulating social justice. Using a bottom-up approach through in-depth interviews with posted migrant workers and administrators involved in the posting process, Workers without Borders shows that strong labor-market regulation via independent collective bargaining institutions at the workplace level is crucial to effective labor rights in marginal workplaces. Wagner identifies structures of access and denial to labor rights for temporary intra-EU migrant workers and the problems contained within this system for the EU more broadly.
Precarious employment has been increasing worldwide. Yet there are few scales suitable to assess it, and no scales to measure perceived job precariousness in working students who are particularly ...vulnerable. Using classic test theory, we generated 21 job precariousness items and had them reviewed by experts. In Study 1 (N = 282, 63% female, mean age 22 years), exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors of job conditions, security, remuneration, and flexibility, each with 3 items. In Study 2 (N = 211, 75% female, mean age 22 years), confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that this four-factor model was the best fit compared to unidimensional, second-order, and bifactor models. Cronbach’s α coefficients for all factors and the full-scale score were sound (all >.78). Validity was supported by showing that precariousness was related negatively to life satisfaction and employer support and positively to job insecurity, financial strain, and subjective social status. Precariousness was unrelated to age, sex, and hours worked. The Job Precariousness Scale has the potential to promote research into the effects of precarious employment on working students’ current and future functioning and achievement and how experiences of precariousness influence the development of a precarity identity.
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