Precariat

Not to be confused with prokaryote.

In sociology and economics, the precariat (/prɪˈkɛəriət/) is a social class formed by people suffering from precarity, which means existing without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. The term is a portmanteau merging precarious with proletariat.[1]

Unlike the proletariat class of industrial workers in the 20th century who lacked their own means of production and hence sold their labor to live, members of the precariat are only partially involved in labor and must undertake extensive unremunerated activities that are essential if they are to retain access to jobs and to decent earnings. Classic examples of such unpaid activities include continually having to search for work (including preparing for and attending job interviews), as well as being expected to be perpetually responsive to calls for "gig" work (yet without being paid an actual wage for being "on call").

The hallmark of the precariat class is the condition of lack of job security, including intermittent employment or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence.[2] The emergence of this class has been ascribed to the entrenchment of neoliberal capitalism.[3][4]

  1. ^ F. Lunning (2010).Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies. University of Minnesota Press. p. 252. ISBN 081667387X.
  2. ^ Guy Standing (May 24, 2011). "The Precariat – The new dangerous class" Archived 2019-12-08 at the Wayback Machine. Policy Network.
  3. ^ Lorna Fox O'Mahony, David O'Mahony and Robin Hickey (eds), Moral Rhetoric and the Criminalisation of Squatting: Vulnerable Demons? (London: Routledge, 2014), ISBN 0415740614 p. 25.
  4. ^ Wacquant, Loïc (2014). "Marginality, ethnicity and penality in the neo-liberal city: an analytic cartography" (PDF). Ethnic and Racial Studies. 37 (10): 1687–1711. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.694.6299. doi:10.1080/01419870.2014.931991. S2CID 144879355. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-10-10.