The Politics of Unpaid Labour How the study of unpaid labour can help address inequality in precarious work

The Politics of Unpaid Labour introduces the theory of the politics of unpaid labour to advance understanding of inequality within the context of precarious work. It understands unpaid labour as the time and effort people invest to undertake tasks which relate to the work implicitly or explicitly assigned to them, but for which they are not paid. The book establishes a crucial link between unpaid labour's political dimensions and its role in fuelling emerging forms of precarious work characterized by persistent inequalities in a context of labour market reforms, societal shifts, and technological changes, and it reveals how these seemingly disparate elements intertwine, connecting the intricate dynamics of the social system's micro-level components to larger macro-level structural patterns.

Comparing working conditions in creative dance, residential care, and online freelancing in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, and Poland, the book's empirical section is based on a wide range of biographical interviews and work diaries. In addition to introducing the major themes, theories, and thinkers of inequality and precarious work within the tradition of work, employment, and economic studies in sociology and the political economy, the theoretical section advances the current discussion on how unpaid labour contributes to inequality in precarious work in three ways. First, it establishes the characteristics differentiating employment from self-employment, and how these lead to a revised definition of unpaid labour. Second, it illustrates that unpaid labour is both shaped by class and serves to reproduce class interests, revealing ongoing changes in welfare, employment, and state institutional policies. Third, it considers the necessity to establish conditions within the labour market conducive to genuinely cultivating and honouring the diversity of human capabilities and actions within labour structures and promoting their manifestation.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International] licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Valeria Pulignano, Professor in Sociology of Work, KU Leuven,Markieta Domecka, Senior Lecturer, University of Roehampton

Valeria Pulignano is Professor in Sociology of Work, Industrial Relations, and Labour Markets and Francqui Research Professor at KU Leuven. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at IRRU University of Warwick, LISER and Co-Researcher at CRIMT, and holder of the Jacques Leclerq Chair (UCL). Professor Pulignano has published extensively on topics related to comparative industrial relations, employment, labour markets and inequality, precarious work, working conditions, job quality, and collective workers' voice. She serves as Principal Coordinator of the RN17 Work, Employment, Industrial Relations within the European Sociological Association (ESA).


Markieta Domecka is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton Business School and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Sociological Research at KU Leuven. She specializes in qualitative research methods and mix-method research in the fields of work and employment, unpaid labour, and inequality, viewed through the lens of intersectionality of class, gender, and ethnicity. Her work appears in Human Relations; Work, Employment and Society; Cambridge Journal of Economics; British Journal of Industrial Relations; International Labour Review, and Gender, Place & Culture.

Part I: Theorising the Politics of Unpaid Labour1. Unpaid Labour and Inequality in Precarious Work2. The Paid / Unpaid Labour Dichotomy3. Establishing a Theory of the Politics of Unpaid LabourPart II: The Empirics Behind the Theory of the 'Politics of Unpaid Labour'4. Dance 'For the Sake of Art'5. Care 'For the Sake of Others'6. Freelancing 'For the Sake of Reputation'PART III: The Implications of the 'Politics of Unpaid Labour' at the Crossroads of Sociology and Economics7. Unpaid Labour, Labour Markets, and Capabilities, Bernard Gazier and Valeria Pulignano8. Conclusion, Damian Grimshaw