In, Against and Beyond Precarity Alberti, Gabriella; Bessa, Ioulia; Hardy, Kate ...
Work, employment and society,
06/2018, Letnik:
32, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In this Foreword to the special issue ‘In, Against and Beyond Precarity’ the guest editors take stock of the existing literature on precarity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of using this ...concept as an analytical tool for examining the world of work. Concluding that the overstretched nature of concept has diluted its political effectiveness, the editors suggest instead a focus on precarization as a process, drawing from perspectives that focus on the objective conditions, as well as subjective and heterogeneous experiences and perceptions of insecure employment. Framed in this way, they present a summary of the contributions to the special issue spanning a range of countries and organizational contexts, identifying key drivers, patterns and forms of precarization. These are conceptualized as implicit, explicit, productive and citizenship precarization. These forms and patterns indicate the need to address precariousness in the realm of social reproduction and post-wage politics, while holding these in tension with conflicts at the point of production. Finally, the guest editors argue for a dramatic re-think of current forms of state and non-state social protections as responses to the precarization of work and employment across countries in both the Global ‘North’ and ‘South’.
While political measures to encourage sobriety are multiplying, the attention paid to the lifestyles of people in precarious situations is a reminder that ordinary expertise in sobriety has not ...waited for the crisis to develop and be shared. This expertise is developed on a daily basis through a range of resourceful practices that are economically constrained, but which are also consistent with values firmly rooted in a specific culture. Contrary to the preconceived notion that members of lower classes are ecologically indifferent, can this ordinary expertise be a vector of relations with the environment? Using a survey of not-for-profit organizations and their members, this article explores the contours of a set of ecological practices, discourses and collective initiatives in lower classes environments.
Professionalised competitive digital gaming or ‘esports’ has grown to a point where millions of dollars are being awarded in competitions watched globally by tens of millions of viewers. Previous ...analyses of the phenomenon have examined the role(s) of labour in esports performed by various actors – players, tournament organisers, sponsors, game developers – but these have yet to be unified into a ‘big picture’ of esports labour, especially when considering the relationships between the labour performed by different esports actors. In this paper we therefore present a comprehensive overview of the labour that different actors within the emerging Esports ecosystem perform, and how they intersect and influence each other in order to contribute to the existence of this highly contemporary phenomenon. In doing so we show that the rapid growth of Esports has created new labour processes and forms of work, transformed existing ones, yielded new career options, and tremendous profits to be made by a range of involved actors. Esports’ emerging position as a major global industry both within gaming and within contemporary media more broadly demands close attention to its work, its workers, and who is winning and losing in this dynamic media space.
In this essay, which has had a significant reception in Spain, the philosopher Javier López Alós seeks to understand how precariousness affects academics in their subjectivities, their work, but also ...in their socio-professional organization. Combining the analysis of the emotional regime with that of the material conditions of academia, Javier López Alós offers a luminous analysis of an academic field increasingly devoured by precariousness. We offer here the first translation in French language of a large part of the introduction to the book, where the author sets out the main issues of his reflection, as well as of the sixth chapter, which, by raising the question of the curriculum vitae, highlights the deleterious effects of precariousness on the possibility of constructing a narrative and a broad research thread.
The devaluing image associated with slums leads to a feeling of stigmatisation among their inhabitants. For some slum dwellers, rehousing is imagined as a new start, an opportunity to take on an ...urban identity that is legitimate in their eyes, by accessing legal and decent housing. This intended identity is constructed in interaction with the authorities and non-residents of the slums, and is associated with a legitimate urban status. Through a qualitative sociological survey, this article studies how the quest for a new urban identity in the Nasr neighbourhood, a collective housing project designed to rehouse former residents of Témara, has created logics of exclusion and social hierarchisation. It analyses the effects of place, the logics of exclusion and the techniques mobilised by stigmas in order to understand neighbourhood relations and the relations maintained by the ex-bidonvillois with the rest of the city. The aim is to find out whether the rehousing of former slum dwellers has enabled them to overcome the feeling of stigmatisation felt in the slums. The article is structured in three parts. The first part provides a description of the neighbourhood studied and the conditions of settlement. Built within the framework of the national ‘Cities without Slums’ (CSB) programme, the Nasr neighbourhood reflects the neoliberal urban governmentality promoted by the World Bank for Development. A policy contributing to the fabrication of the indebted poor. For some ex-slum dwellers, rehousing is experienced as a form of ruralization, as it is located far from the city centre and its amenities, which were accessible in the slum context. The deterioration of the social conditions of this population fuels a certain hostility and discontent towards the authorities. The second part of the article highlights the precarious living conditions for a large proportion of ex-bidonvillians. Indeed, the flats were a disillusionment for some ex-bidonvillians in relation to their expectations. This is largely linked to the authorities’ objective of deconstructing habitats considered to be both a spatial and social evil without putting in place a more adequate social support strategy that meets the expectations of the population. The feeling of abandonment due to the lack of social support has given rise to subaltern means of resistance such as associative work, individual and collective mobilisation, indignation towards the public authorities, and the construction of an informal market to respond to their needs. The precarious transition from the slums to the resettlement area has worsened the economic and social situation of some inhabitants. At the economic level, many families, particularly the most disadvantaged (women heads of household and some ex-slum dwellers working in day jobs), have difficulty in covering new expenses, such as bank bills, water and electricity costs. Finally, the third part analyses the social relations within the neighbourhood. Flats were allocated arbitrarily, which led to a breakdown in the existing social ties between the slum dwellers. Moreover, the departure of some ex-slum dwellers and the arrival of other social categories created a social hierarchy based on the amount of economic capital owned and the attempts to adapt to the new life. This has led to a kind of mistrust and social withdrawal. Although this social hierarchy is invisible to the outside world, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood are seen as homogeneous and judged according to the image that others have of their neighbourhood. This leads the inhabitants to want to flee the neighbourhood in order to distinguish themselves and to appropriate a new urban identity.
Resumen: El trabajo en la fruticultura en Chile presenta características estructurales que normalizan la precarización de las condiciones laborales que, estudiadas en mujeres mayores, con más de tres ...décadas de trayectoria en el rubro —en el cruce con el trabajo reproductivo—, evidencian una condición de precariedad global de la vida. El artículo busca abordar la relación entre la precariedad de ambos trabajos con la emergencia de elementos de agencia como amortiguadores de la desigualdad. La metodología se diseñó a partir del análisis cualitativo de 10 entrevistas de trabajadoras de entre 59 y 74 años que han envejecido siendo jornaleras. Los resultados muestran que la noción de emancipación precaria se cristalizaría en el acceso a la autonomía económica, pero a ritmos de trabajo sacrificiales en tensión con el trabajo reproductivo. Se concluye que, desde el vínculo entre precariedad y agencia, existen limitaciones en la acción social colectiva, aun visualizándose señales de agencia individual.
This article discusses how communities from the Chilean cordillera negotiate their presence and reproduction with the Chilean State. We analyze people and animals' mobility through a multisite ...ethnography, which took place between 2021 and 2022. In this context, communities seem independent while facing the weak and inconstant State presence. However, processes of change concerning extractive economies, decreasing State aid, and consequences of climate change complicate the practices once thought to be autonomous in the mountain range. The State appears to favor certain degrees of independence through arrhythmic governance. Such an arrangement allows a fluctuating and unstable relationship that, despite the grip of the State, translates into emergent forms of autonomy that nonetheless end up being a specific type of precarization. In this sense, mountain communities maintain, complicate and, on occasion, deepen the relations of dependence towards a State that they either ignore or elude. Finally, the intertwined movements of neoliberalization, environmental stressors and precarious State governance are elements that deepen the production of an arrhythmic State movement; which also redistributes agency among actors on the terrain.
O modelo de subjetivação capitalista determina a generalização da concorrência como norma de conduta, intima os indivíduos a conceber a si mesmo e a comportar-se como uma empresa, ordena as relações ...sociais segundo o modelo de mercado e altera a lógica das políticas públicas. O presente ensaio visa compreender, a partir do referencial teórico de P. Dardot & C. Laval (2016a, 2016b, 2010), F. Guattari (1985, 1996), G. Alves (2011, 2008), D. Mancebo (2007, 2003), dentre outros, como se constitui a subjetividade do trabalhador docente do ensino superior, diante do atual processo de expansão hegemônica da racionalidade toyotista/neoliberal, e de que forma esse processo de subjetivação capitalística tem interferido sobre as condições de trabalho e ao modo/projeto de vida dos profissionais da educação. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório quanto aos objetivos e bibliográfico quanto aos procedimentos de cunho hermenêutico-analítico. Inicialmente, o ensaio trata das transformações na estrutura político-econômica, cultural e produtiva, inerentes à expansão do capitalismo flexível, que deram sustentação à construção de um novo modelo de “governança” e à formação de um novo sujeito produtivo (autogovernável). Em seguida, apresenta os mecanismos e movimentos utilizados pela racionalidade toyotista/neoliberal na formação de uma subjetividade produtivista e concorrencial e suas implicações sobre os ritmos e condições de trabalho; por fim, busca compreender as metamorfoses do trabalho docente, incluindo o fenômeno relativo à intensificação e à precarização de suas condições de trabalho, decorrente do processo de subjetivação capitalista.
Employment precariousness is widely recognised as a social determinant of health and a chronic stressor. Yet precariousness extends beyond employment, into other aspects of life. Using a ...multidimensional social pathways approach, this study examines the synergistic effects of employment and housing precariousness on self-perceived stress. This study uses the PRESSED dataset (N = 255) derived from the Barcelona Health Survey, which collects data on stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Employment precariousness was operationalized using the Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) and a multidimensional indicator of housing precariousness was constructed. Generalized structural equation modelling was used to estimate associations between these indicators and self-perceived stress measured by Perceived Stress Survey (PSS), after accounting for sociodemographic variables. Employment and housing precariousness were positively associated with self-perceived stress (OR = 3.23 ; p = 0.002) (OR = 4.28 ; p = 0.065) respectively. The mediating effect of housing precariousness accounted for 16% of the total effect of employment precariousness on stress after controlling for sociodemographic variables. Furthermore, we find that both precarious conditions were unequally distributed by age, sex educational level, and place of birth in the sample. We conclude that employment and housing precariousness are important chronic stressors and that a social pathway approach is needed.
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