The Precariat The New Dangerous Class

by Standing, Guy

• ISBN13: 9781849663519
• ISBN10: 1849663513
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-24
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Neo-liberal policies and institutional changes have produced a huge and growing number of people with sufficiently common experiences to be called an emerging class. In this book Guy Standing introduces what he calls the Precariat - a growing number of people across the world living and working precariously, usually in a series of short-term jobs, without recourse to stable occupational identities, stable social protection or protective regulations relevant to them. They include migrant workers, but also locals.Standing  argues that this class of people could produce new instabilities in society. They are increasingly frustrated and dangerous because they have no voice, and hence  they are vulnerable to the siren calls of extreme political parties. He outlines a new kind of good society, with more people actively involved in civil society and the precariat re-engaged.  He goes on to consider one way to a new better society -- an unconditional basic wage for everone, contributed by the state, which could be topped up through employment.This is a topical, and a radical book, which will appeal to a broad market concerned by the increasing problems of job insecurity and civic disengagement.

Author Biography

Guy Standing argues that this class is producing instabilities in society. Although it would be wrong to characterise members of the Precariat as victims, many are frustrated and angry. The Precariat is dangerous because it is internally divided, leading to the villainisation of migrants and other vulnerable groups. Lacking agency, its members may be susceptible to the siren calls of political extremism. To prevent a 'politics of inferno', Guy Standing argues for a 'politics of paradise', in which redistribution and income security are reconfigured in a new Rind of Good Society, and in which the fears and aspirations of the Precariat are made central to a progressive strategy. Guy Standing is Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath, UK; he was ' previously Director of the Socio-Economic Security Programme of the International Labour Organization, and is co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network. His books include Work after Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship (2009).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
List of Abbreviations	p. ix
The Precariat	p. 1
Why the Precariat Is Growing	p. 26
Who Enters the Precariat?	p. 59
Migrants: Victims, Villains or Heroes?	p. 90
Labour, Work and the Time Squeeze	p. 115
A Politics of Inferno	p. 132
A Politics of Paradise	p. 155
Bibliography	p. 184
Index	p. 191
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