Breaking-up the ‘Precariat’: Personalisation, Differentiation and Deindividuation in Precarious Work Groups
Manolchev, CN; Saundry, R; Lewis, D
Date: 28 November 2018
Journal
Economic and Industrial Democracy
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Much-debated and researched, the subject of precarious work remains at the forefront of
academic and policy discourses. A development of current interest is the reported growth
of employment flexibility and increase in non-standard and atypical work, regarded by
some as contributing to the emergence of a class-like ‘precariat’ of ...
Much-debated and researched, the subject of precarious work remains at the forefront of
academic and policy discourses. A development of current interest is the reported growth
of employment flexibility and increase in non-standard and atypical work, regarded by
some as contributing to the emergence of a class-like ‘precariat’ of insecure and
marginalised workers. However, this precariat framework remain largely untested and
underexplored. Therefore, using in-depth narratives from 77 semi-structured interviews
with workers from groups within the precariat spectrum, we address this gap. Our study
finds that cohesion within and between these groups is overstated, and worker
collectivisation far from apparent. As a result, this diversity of group dynamics, attitudes
and experiences challenges not only negative conceptualisations of the precariat in the
literature, but the theoretical validity of the precariat framework itself.
Management
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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