Paul W. Posner, Viviana Patroni, and Jean François Mayer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781683400455
- eISBN:
- 9781683400677
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683400455.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Labor Politics in Latin America assesses the capacity of working-class organizations to represent and advance working people’s demands in the era of globalization and neoliberalism, in which capital ...
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Labor Politics in Latin America assesses the capacity of working-class organizations to represent and advance working people’s demands in the era of globalization and neoliberalism, in which capital has reasserted its power on a global scale. The book’s premise is that the longer-term sustainability of development strategies for the region is largely connected to the capacity of working-class organizations to secure a fairer distribution of the gains from growth through labor legislation reform. Its analysis suggests the need to take into consideration the wider structural changes that reconfigured the political maps of the countries examined (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela), for example, globalization and its impact on democratic transformation in the region, operating within longer time frames. It is precisely this wider structural analysis and historical narrative that allows the book’s case studies to show that, even in the uncovering of substantial variation, what becomes evident in the study of Latin America over the last three decades is the overwhelming reality that for most workers in the region, labor reform—or the lack thereof —in essence increased precarity and informality and weakened labor movements.Less
Labor Politics in Latin America assesses the capacity of working-class organizations to represent and advance working people’s demands in the era of globalization and neoliberalism, in which capital has reasserted its power on a global scale. The book’s premise is that the longer-term sustainability of development strategies for the region is largely connected to the capacity of working-class organizations to secure a fairer distribution of the gains from growth through labor legislation reform. Its analysis suggests the need to take into consideration the wider structural changes that reconfigured the political maps of the countries examined (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela), for example, globalization and its impact on democratic transformation in the region, operating within longer time frames. It is precisely this wider structural analysis and historical narrative that allows the book’s case studies to show that, even in the uncovering of substantial variation, what becomes evident in the study of Latin America over the last three decades is the overwhelming reality that for most workers in the region, labor reform—or the lack thereof —in essence increased precarity and informality and weakened labor movements.
Kelly Bogue
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447350538
- eISBN:
- 9781447350545
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447350538.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Drawing on first person accounts and participant observation, this book looks in-depth at one of the UK government’s most controversial austerity policies, the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Focusing on the lives of ...
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Drawing on first person accounts and participant observation, this book looks in-depth at one of the UK government’s most controversial austerity policies, the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Focusing on the lives of 31 people in one neighbourhood, it explores the push and pull factors that structure tenants’ behaviour regarding downsizing to smaller properties within a residualised and stigmatised social housing sector. It highlights the meaning of home and the continuing relevance of community and the tensions created when tenants are faced with the threat of displacement and the concomitant loss of social networks and informal structures of welfare that operate in place. While this book focuses on one social policy, it speaks to broader concerns about the value and loss of social housing and how we care for and house our most vulnerable citizens in the midst of neoliberal restructuring. It reflects on the continuing loss of housing benefit support, on-going cuts to the welfare state and what this means for communities and their sense of security and belonging. More broadly, it reflects on how cuts to housing benefit support are undermining the capacity of low income households to secure and maintain housing within a social sector that faces new financial risks and a private rented sector in which the term ‘no DSS’ has made a resurgence. The central argument of this book is that policies such as the Bedroom Tax which undermine secure housing are divisive, heightening resentment about access to housing while leading to increasing housing inequality and urban marginality.Less
Drawing on first person accounts and participant observation, this book looks in-depth at one of the UK government’s most controversial austerity policies, the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Focusing on the lives of 31 people in one neighbourhood, it explores the push and pull factors that structure tenants’ behaviour regarding downsizing to smaller properties within a residualised and stigmatised social housing sector. It highlights the meaning of home and the continuing relevance of community and the tensions created when tenants are faced with the threat of displacement and the concomitant loss of social networks and informal structures of welfare that operate in place. While this book focuses on one social policy, it speaks to broader concerns about the value and loss of social housing and how we care for and house our most vulnerable citizens in the midst of neoliberal restructuring. It reflects on the continuing loss of housing benefit support, on-going cuts to the welfare state and what this means for communities and their sense of security and belonging. More broadly, it reflects on how cuts to housing benefit support are undermining the capacity of low income households to secure and maintain housing within a social sector that faces new financial risks and a private rented sector in which the term ‘no DSS’ has made a resurgence. The central argument of this book is that policies such as the Bedroom Tax which undermine secure housing are divisive, heightening resentment about access to housing while leading to increasing housing inequality and urban marginality.
Katherine Fusco and Nicole Seymour
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041242
- eISBN:
- 9780252050107
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041242.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Kelly Reichardt is the first book-length study of contemporary filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. This book argues that Reichardt’s process-based slow cinema captures the “emergent” quality of contemporary, ...
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Kelly Reichardt is the first book-length study of contemporary filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. This book argues that Reichardt’s process-based slow cinema captures the “emergent” quality of contemporary, neoliberal emergencies such as global warming and economic precarity. The book positions Reichardt’s filmmaking in relation to contemporary American independent cinema, the international slow cinema movement, and the tradition of European neorealism. Drawing from these lineages, Reichardt’s cinema emphasizes the local effects of global catastrophes and represents crises as everyday experiences that are slow in unfolding. In this way, the book argues that Reichardt challenges the cinema’s tendency to spectacularize disaster. She makes this critique both through her films’ pacing and her tendency to work with the traditions of genre film, only to deflate their most thrilling elements to reveal what has been termed the slow violence of our postindustrial moment. Additionally, the book considers Reichardt’s frequently thin characterization of her protagonists, arguing that the underdrawn and often unlikeable characters work to challenge audience identification and the expectations that victims of emergency should be especially deserving or empathetic. In chapters that examine Reichardt’s earliest film, her four Oregon-centric films, and her experimental short films, Kelly Reichardt establishes Reichardt as a crucial voice in American independent film, one committed to documenting the challenges of the twenty-first century.
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Kelly Reichardt is the first book-length study of contemporary filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. This book argues that Reichardt’s process-based slow cinema captures the “emergent” quality of contemporary, neoliberal emergencies such as global warming and economic precarity. The book positions Reichardt’s filmmaking in relation to contemporary American independent cinema, the international slow cinema movement, and the tradition of European neorealism. Drawing from these lineages, Reichardt’s cinema emphasizes the local effects of global catastrophes and represents crises as everyday experiences that are slow in unfolding. In this way, the book argues that Reichardt challenges the cinema’s tendency to spectacularize disaster. She makes this critique both through her films’ pacing and her tendency to work with the traditions of genre film, only to deflate their most thrilling elements to reveal what has been termed the slow violence of our postindustrial moment. Additionally, the book considers Reichardt’s frequently thin characterization of her protagonists, arguing that the underdrawn and often unlikeable characters work to challenge audience identification and the expectations that victims of emergency should be especially deserving or empathetic. In chapters that examine Reichardt’s earliest film, her four Oregon-centric films, and her experimental short films, Kelly Reichardt establishes Reichardt as a crucial voice in American independent film, one committed to documenting the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Frank Baldwin and Anne Allison
- Published in print:
- 1953
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479889389
- eISBN:
- 9781479830893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479889389.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
The earthquake, tidal wave, and nuclear meltdown in 2011 brought enormous loss of life and destruction to a Japan already grappling with recession, demographic dilemmas, and challenges from China. ...
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The earthquake, tidal wave, and nuclear meltdown in 2011 brought enormous loss of life and destruction to a Japan already grappling with recession, demographic dilemmas, and challenges from China. Could the country rally, recover economic vitality, and face the future confidently or was the natural disaster the tipping point to national decline? Although there is no consensus among the authors in this volume--guarded pessimism vies with tentative optimism—they all see Japan’s future as precarious.Less
The earthquake, tidal wave, and nuclear meltdown in 2011 brought enormous loss of life and destruction to a Japan already grappling with recession, demographic dilemmas, and challenges from China. Could the country rally, recover economic vitality, and face the future confidently or was the natural disaster the tipping point to national decline? Although there is no consensus among the authors in this volume--guarded pessimism vies with tentative optimism—they all see Japan’s future as precarious.
Anne Allison
- Published in print:
- 1953
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479889389
- eISBN:
- 9781479830893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479889389.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
In postwar Japan, durable attachments—to workplace and family—were the normative ideal. In post-Bubble Japan, the family-corporate system, along with its logics of time and security, has started to ...
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In postwar Japan, durable attachments—to workplace and family—were the normative ideal. In post-Bubble Japan, the family-corporate system, along with its logics of time and security, has started to disintegrate leading to a form of (social) precarity quite unique to Japan/ese. Looking at lonely death as one symptom of this precarity, the essay also looks at news forms of social connection and belonging (beyond the workplace and heteronormative family) that are arising in post 3.11 Japan. How hope is calculated, in both the older and newer terms, is discussed and how to think about the hopeful possibility of a post-precarious Japan is raised at the end.Less
In postwar Japan, durable attachments—to workplace and family—were the normative ideal. In post-Bubble Japan, the family-corporate system, along with its logics of time and security, has started to disintegrate leading to a form of (social) precarity quite unique to Japan/ese. Looking at lonely death as one symptom of this precarity, the essay also looks at news forms of social connection and belonging (beyond the workplace and heteronormative family) that are arising in post 3.11 Japan. How hope is calculated, in both the older and newer terms, is discussed and how to think about the hopeful possibility of a post-precarious Japan is raised at the end.
Anna Dezeuze
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719088575
- eISBN:
- 9781526120717
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719088575.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This book proposes a new reading of contemporary art between 1958 and 2009 by sketching out a trajectory of ‘precarious’ art practices. Such practices risk being dismissed as ‘almost nothing’ because ...
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This book proposes a new reading of contemporary art between 1958 and 2009 by sketching out a trajectory of ‘precarious’ art practices. Such practices risk being dismissed as ‘almost nothing’ because they look like trash about to be thrown out, because they present objects and events that are so commonplace as to be confused with our ordinary surroundings, or because they are fleeting gestures that vanish into the fabric of everyday life. What is the status of such fragile, nearly invisible, artworks? In what ways do they engage with the precarious modes of existence that have emerged and evolved in the socio-economic context of an increasingly globalised capitalism?
Works discussed in this study range from Allan Kaprow’s assemblages and happenings, Fluxus event scores and Hélio Oiticica’s wearable Parangolé capes in the 1960s, to Thomas Hirschhorn’s sprawling environments and participatory projects, Francis Alÿs’s filmed performances and Gabriel Orozco’s objects and photographs in the 1990s. Significant similarities among these different practices will be drawn out, while crucial shifts will be outlined in the evolution of this trajectory from the early 1960s to the turn of the twenty-first century.
This book will give students and amateurs of contemporary art and culture new insights into the radical specificities of these practices, by situating them within an original set of historical and critical issues. In particular, this study addresses essential questions such as the art object’s ‘dematerialisation’, relations between art and everyday life, including the three fields of work, labour and action first outlined by Hannah Arendt in 1958.Less
This book proposes a new reading of contemporary art between 1958 and 2009 by sketching out a trajectory of ‘precarious’ art practices. Such practices risk being dismissed as ‘almost nothing’ because they look like trash about to be thrown out, because they present objects and events that are so commonplace as to be confused with our ordinary surroundings, or because they are fleeting gestures that vanish into the fabric of everyday life. What is the status of such fragile, nearly invisible, artworks? In what ways do they engage with the precarious modes of existence that have emerged and evolved in the socio-economic context of an increasingly globalised capitalism?
Works discussed in this study range from Allan Kaprow’s assemblages and happenings, Fluxus event scores and Hélio Oiticica’s wearable Parangolé capes in the 1960s, to Thomas Hirschhorn’s sprawling environments and participatory projects, Francis Alÿs’s filmed performances and Gabriel Orozco’s objects and photographs in the 1990s. Significant similarities among these different practices will be drawn out, while crucial shifts will be outlined in the evolution of this trajectory from the early 1960s to the turn of the twenty-first century.
This book will give students and amateurs of contemporary art and culture new insights into the radical specificities of these practices, by situating them within an original set of historical and critical issues. In particular, this study addresses essential questions such as the art object’s ‘dematerialisation’, relations between art and everyday life, including the three fields of work, labour and action first outlined by Hannah Arendt in 1958.
Eva A. Duda-Mikulin
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447351627
- eISBN:
- 9781447351665
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447351627.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
In June 2016, after 43 years as part of the European community, the UK people decided to leave. In March 2017, the UK Prime Minister officially started the process of Brexit – the UK’s withdrawal ...
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In June 2016, after 43 years as part of the European community, the UK people decided to leave. In March 2017, the UK Prime Minister officially started the process of Brexit – the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. While Brexit was decided by a relatively small margin of people, one issue was key in the debates preceding the EU referendum. This was migration. People have been migrating since the beginning of time but today the issue of migration has been elevated to a key national concern. It is now one of the most contentious and divisive matters in the UK. This book investigates EU women migrants’ perspectives on the Brexit vote in the UK. It presents accounts from EU nationals and considers the wider implications in relation to precarity and the British paid labour market. This book offers important insights into the world of the UK paid labour but from the point of view of EU migrants and more specifically Polish women whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the Brexit vote and the decision that the UK should leave the EU whilst any solid guarantees with regards to migrants’ rights are yet to come from the UK government. Through analysis of new data generated in qualitative interviews, this book makes an original and grounded contribution to understanding the significance and impacts of the result of the Brexit referendum on migrant workers from the EU resident in the UK.Less
In June 2016, after 43 years as part of the European community, the UK people decided to leave. In March 2017, the UK Prime Minister officially started the process of Brexit – the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. While Brexit was decided by a relatively small margin of people, one issue was key in the debates preceding the EU referendum. This was migration. People have been migrating since the beginning of time but today the issue of migration has been elevated to a key national concern. It is now one of the most contentious and divisive matters in the UK. This book investigates EU women migrants’ perspectives on the Brexit vote in the UK. It presents accounts from EU nationals and considers the wider implications in relation to precarity and the British paid labour market. This book offers important insights into the world of the UK paid labour but from the point of view of EU migrants and more specifically Polish women whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the Brexit vote and the decision that the UK should leave the EU whilst any solid guarantees with regards to migrants’ rights are yet to come from the UK government. Through analysis of new data generated in qualitative interviews, this book makes an original and grounded contribution to understanding the significance and impacts of the result of the Brexit referendum on migrant workers from the EU resident in the UK.
Jeff Ferrell
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520295544
- eISBN:
- 9780520968271
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520295544.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This is a book about drift and drifters—about the ways in which dislocation and disorientation can become phenomena in their own right. Locating drift within social, political, and spatial theory, ...
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This is a book about drift and drifters—about the ways in which dislocation and disorientation can become phenomena in their own right. Locating drift within social, political, and spatial theory, the book also situates contemporary drift within the contested politics of the present day. Here the book explores the ways in which contemporary arrangements of power both promote and police drift; it also explores the experiential and collective politics of drift as a form of resistance to power. The book, in turn, highlights a distinctly North American form of drift—that of the train-hopping itinerant—via historical analysis of the hobo and the hobo’s collective politics, and through the author’s own train-riding immersion in the contemporary world of gutter punks and train hoppers. In conclusion, the book considers drift as a methodology and epistemology attuned to the contemporary world. It argues that we can better understand the world that has emerged around us by abandoning traditional, slab-like approaches to social inquiry and, instead, by learning the theoretical and methodological lessons offered by drift. In this context, the book reconsiders the photodocumentary tradition and explores the potential of ghost method and ghost images, absences, aftermaths, ruins, residues, and mistakes.Less
This is a book about drift and drifters—about the ways in which dislocation and disorientation can become phenomena in their own right. Locating drift within social, political, and spatial theory, the book also situates contemporary drift within the contested politics of the present day. Here the book explores the ways in which contemporary arrangements of power both promote and police drift; it also explores the experiential and collective politics of drift as a form of resistance to power. The book, in turn, highlights a distinctly North American form of drift—that of the train-hopping itinerant—via historical analysis of the hobo and the hobo’s collective politics, and through the author’s own train-riding immersion in the contemporary world of gutter punks and train hoppers. In conclusion, the book considers drift as a methodology and epistemology attuned to the contemporary world. It argues that we can better understand the world that has emerged around us by abandoning traditional, slab-like approaches to social inquiry and, instead, by learning the theoretical and methodological lessons offered by drift. In this context, the book reconsiders the photodocumentary tradition and explores the potential of ghost method and ghost images, absences, aftermaths, ruins, residues, and mistakes.
Peter Dwyer (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447341826
- eISBN:
- 9781447341864
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447341826.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This edited collection considers how conditional welfare policies and services are implemented and experienced by a diverse range of welfare service users across a range of UK policy domains ...
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This edited collection considers how conditional welfare policies and services are implemented and experienced by a diverse range of welfare service users across a range of UK policy domains including social security, homelessness, migration and criminal justice. The book showcases the insights and findings of a series of distinct, independent studies undertaken by early career researchers associated with the ESRC funded Welfare Conditionality project. Each chapter presents a new empirical analysis of data generated in fieldwork conducted with practitioners charged with interpreting and delivering policy, and welfare service users who are at the sharp end of welfare services shaped by behavioural conditionality.Less
This edited collection considers how conditional welfare policies and services are implemented and experienced by a diverse range of welfare service users across a range of UK policy domains including social security, homelessness, migration and criminal justice. The book showcases the insights and findings of a series of distinct, independent studies undertaken by early career researchers associated with the ESRC funded Welfare Conditionality project. Each chapter presents a new empirical analysis of data generated in fieldwork conducted with practitioners charged with interpreting and delivering policy, and welfare service users who are at the sharp end of welfare services shaped by behavioural conditionality.
Walter Armbrust
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691162645
- eISBN:
- 9780691197517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691162645.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on an influential post in June of 2011 by a blogger named Muhammad Abu al-Ghayt. Abu al-Ghayt's post frames class by reference to ʻashwa'iyyat, literally “haphazard” ...
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This chapter focuses on an influential post in June of 2011 by a blogger named Muhammad Abu al-Ghayt. Abu al-Ghayt's post frames class by reference to ʻashwa'iyyat, literally “haphazard” neighborhoods, meaning specifically the informal neighborhoods that were mentioned in the previous chapter as the social location of a substantial number of the fighters in street battles. In the imaginary of elites, many members of the middle class, and more than a few media professionals ʻashwa'iyyat are discursively marginal, or even liminal in the sense that they are often depicted as a morally compromised urban instantiation of precarious lives—morally compromised because of the alleged social pathologies that go with precarity, such as drug abuse, crime, and fanaticism. That sense of precarity, moreover, is an effect of the neoliberal ideology that formed the economic and social conditions of the revolution. Abu al-Ghayt never uses the term “neoliberal,” but the ʻashwa'iyyat were as much a product of it as the luxury housing developments that absorbed so much of the state's resources for the benefit of elites. Both the discursive sense of ʻashwa'iyyat as the urban expression of precarity and its associated pathologies, and the neoliberal order that structured poverty and wealth in the decades leading up to the revolution, are implicitly invoked by Abu al-Ghayt in his blog.Less
This chapter focuses on an influential post in June of 2011 by a blogger named Muhammad Abu al-Ghayt. Abu al-Ghayt's post frames class by reference to ʻashwa'iyyat, literally “haphazard” neighborhoods, meaning specifically the informal neighborhoods that were mentioned in the previous chapter as the social location of a substantial number of the fighters in street battles. In the imaginary of elites, many members of the middle class, and more than a few media professionals ʻashwa'iyyat are discursively marginal, or even liminal in the sense that they are often depicted as a morally compromised urban instantiation of precarious lives—morally compromised because of the alleged social pathologies that go with precarity, such as drug abuse, crime, and fanaticism. That sense of precarity, moreover, is an effect of the neoliberal ideology that formed the economic and social conditions of the revolution. Abu al-Ghayt never uses the term “neoliberal,” but the ʻashwa'iyyat were as much a product of it as the luxury housing developments that absorbed so much of the state's resources for the benefit of elites. Both the discursive sense of ʻashwa'iyyat as the urban expression of precarity and its associated pathologies, and the neoliberal order that structured poverty and wealth in the decades leading up to the revolution, are implicitly invoked by Abu al-Ghayt in his blog.
Stephen Greer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526113696
- eISBN:
- 9781526141941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526113696.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Since the late 1990s, the figure of the creative entrepreneur has played an increasingly significant role in the working life of performers and theatre-makers across the UK and Europe. Focusing on ...
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Since the late 1990s, the figure of the creative entrepreneur has played an increasingly significant role in the working life of performers and theatre-makers across the UK and Europe. Focusing on the burgeoning economy and ecology of contemporary arts festivals as a key environment for the creation and staging of solo work, this chapter explores the increasing demand for self-employed artists to pursue individualised risk and reward, and to self-exploit. While unjuried events like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe emphasise that they are ‘open to all’, participation requires artists to take on the risk of significant personal debt and embrace often narrowly-drawn industry standards. In this context, ‘free’ fringe festivals – and the work of artist-led groups like Forest Fringe and BUZZCUT – suggest alternative modes of practice in resistance of neoliberal economies.Less
Since the late 1990s, the figure of the creative entrepreneur has played an increasingly significant role in the working life of performers and theatre-makers across the UK and Europe. Focusing on the burgeoning economy and ecology of contemporary arts festivals as a key environment for the creation and staging of solo work, this chapter explores the increasing demand for self-employed artists to pursue individualised risk and reward, and to self-exploit. While unjuried events like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe emphasise that they are ‘open to all’, participation requires artists to take on the risk of significant personal debt and embrace often narrowly-drawn industry standards. In this context, ‘free’ fringe festivals – and the work of artist-led groups like Forest Fringe and BUZZCUT – suggest alternative modes of practice in resistance of neoliberal economies.
Stephen Katz
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter explores the critical intersections between ageing, human development, and the life course as precarious forms of life. The first part reviews the literature on global precarity and the ...
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This chapter explores the critical intersections between ageing, human development, and the life course as precarious forms of life. The first part reviews the literature on global precarity and the endangerment of liveability in relation to ageing populations, with a focus on neoliberal strategies that naturalise and individualise risky life-course trajectories and health crises. The second part examines selected figures of the obese child, unstable adolescent, despairing mid-lifer, and cognitively impaired older adult as examples of crisis-laden personifications of social problems. Data are drawn from historical texts, popular images and professional knowledges. Conclusions revisit the work of Butler and Foucault to raise questions about current models of resilience and the possibilities of resistance and living differently.Less
This chapter explores the critical intersections between ageing, human development, and the life course as precarious forms of life. The first part reviews the literature on global precarity and the endangerment of liveability in relation to ageing populations, with a focus on neoliberal strategies that naturalise and individualise risky life-course trajectories and health crises. The second part examines selected figures of the obese child, unstable adolescent, despairing mid-lifer, and cognitively impaired older adult as examples of crisis-laden personifications of social problems. Data are drawn from historical texts, popular images and professional knowledges. Conclusions revisit the work of Butler and Foucault to raise questions about current models of resilience and the possibilities of resistance and living differently.
David Lain, Laura Airey, Wendy Loretto, and Sarah Vickerstaff
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter develops a theoretical model for understanding ‘ontological precarity’ among older workers. Ontological precarity is caused by individuals feeling ‘trapped’ between precariousness in ...
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This chapter develops a theoretical model for understanding ‘ontological precarity’ among older workers. Ontological precarity is caused by individuals feeling ‘trapped’ between precariousness in different domains of their lives. Individuals worry about the long-term sustainability of their ‘precarious employment’. This anxiety is enhanced by financial pressures to work longer in the context of diminishing financial support from a ‘precarious welfare state’ and from ‘precarious households’. The chapter presents case studies of three older hospitality workers, in order to illustrate how these different forms of precarity interact. It concludes by discussing policy implications and provides suggestions for how the framework could be used in future research.Less
This chapter develops a theoretical model for understanding ‘ontological precarity’ among older workers. Ontological precarity is caused by individuals feeling ‘trapped’ between precariousness in different domains of their lives. Individuals worry about the long-term sustainability of their ‘precarious employment’. This anxiety is enhanced by financial pressures to work longer in the context of diminishing financial support from a ‘precarious welfare state’ and from ‘precarious households’. The chapter presents case studies of three older hospitality workers, in order to illustrate how these different forms of precarity interact. It concludes by discussing policy implications and provides suggestions for how the framework could be used in future research.
Karen Kobayashi and Mushira Mohsin Khan
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
The profile of older adults in the Global North is changing rapidly with increasing proportions of foreign-born ageing populations. Despite their demographic significance, very little research has ...
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The profile of older adults in the Global North is changing rapidly with increasing proportions of foreign-born ageing populations. Despite their demographic significance, very little research has been conducted on the complex and varied experiences of ageing, risk, and insecurity in this group, particularly with regard to significant life course events such as migration. Using the conceptual lens of precarity, this chapter presents a nuanced analysis of risk and vulnerability in the context of ageing and migration. We begin with a brief overview of the key economic, psychosocial, and cultural markers of precarity in older immigrants. Next, we highlight the ‘politics of precarity’ inherent in the larger political economy of immigration and the invisibility of racialized older immigrants in health and social care policies. We conclude with a discussion on the challenges to understanding precarity in the context of migration, and provide suggestions for future research.Less
The profile of older adults in the Global North is changing rapidly with increasing proportions of foreign-born ageing populations. Despite their demographic significance, very little research has been conducted on the complex and varied experiences of ageing, risk, and insecurity in this group, particularly with regard to significant life course events such as migration. Using the conceptual lens of precarity, this chapter presents a nuanced analysis of risk and vulnerability in the context of ageing and migration. We begin with a brief overview of the key economic, psychosocial, and cultural markers of precarity in older immigrants. Next, we highlight the ‘politics of precarity’ inherent in the larger political economy of immigration and the invisibility of racialized older immigrants in health and social care policies. We conclude with a discussion on the challenges to understanding precarity in the context of migration, and provide suggestions for future research.
Michael Fine
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
This chapter explores the potential for the development of critical approach to care based on the concepts of precarity and precariousness. Applying those concepts at the level of both theory and ...
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This chapter explores the potential for the development of critical approach to care based on the concepts of precarity and precariousness. Applying those concepts at the level of both theory and analysis, it is argued, serves to draw attention to both the socially constructed uncertainties of care provision conditioned by the labour market and corporate practices on the one hand, and the uncertainties of physical ageing and the ontological vulnerabilities that arise from our bodily existence on the other. Uncertainty also confronts those who provide care in either a paid or unpaid/informal capacity. The precarious conditions of work reflect the financial fragility of the economic supports and the changing and unequal markets that increasingly underpin the way care is provided to the increasing numbers of people who live extended lives today.Less
This chapter explores the potential for the development of critical approach to care based on the concepts of precarity and precariousness. Applying those concepts at the level of both theory and analysis, it is argued, serves to draw attention to both the socially constructed uncertainties of care provision conditioned by the labour market and corporate practices on the one hand, and the uncertainties of physical ageing and the ontological vulnerabilities that arise from our bodily existence on the other. Uncertainty also confronts those who provide care in either a paid or unpaid/informal capacity. The precarious conditions of work reflect the financial fragility of the economic supports and the changing and unequal markets that increasingly underpin the way care is provided to the increasing numbers of people who live extended lives today.
Larry Polivka and Baozhen Luo
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447340850
- eISBN:
- 9781447340904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340850.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Neoliberal political economies have emerged across the west over the last 40 years. This development has been driven by several forces including public policy regimes that prioritize privatization of ...
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Neoliberal political economies have emerged across the west over the last 40 years. This development has been driven by several forces including public policy regimes that prioritize privatization of public assets and services, deregulation of the economy, reduced taxes on high incomes and wealth and use of public revenues to bail out corporate entities that are “too big to fail”. This chapter draws on Streeck’s theory of the Consolidation State dominated by corporate priorities. It describes how neoliberal policy priorities, especially privatization, are being implemented in the health and long term care systems in the U.S, and how these are in turn creating the same levels of economic insecurity and precarity in the context of work and retirement over the last 20 plus years.Less
Neoliberal political economies have emerged across the west over the last 40 years. This development has been driven by several forces including public policy regimes that prioritize privatization of public assets and services, deregulation of the economy, reduced taxes on high incomes and wealth and use of public revenues to bail out corporate entities that are “too big to fail”. This chapter draws on Streeck’s theory of the Consolidation State dominated by corporate priorities. It describes how neoliberal policy priorities, especially privatization, are being implemented in the health and long term care systems in the U.S, and how these are in turn creating the same levels of economic insecurity and precarity in the context of work and retirement over the last 20 plus years.
Lynn S. Chancer, Martín Sánchez-Jankowski, and Christine Trost (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190685898
- eISBN:
- 9780190685935
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190685898.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work, Economic Sociology
This book confronts the persistent issues of youth unemployment and worsening socioeconomic precarity in the United States. While overall unemployment has declined, the unemployment rate remains ...
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This book confronts the persistent issues of youth unemployment and worsening socioeconomic precarity in the United States. While overall unemployment has declined, the unemployment rate remains nearly twice as high for young people 16–19 years of age and nearly three times as high for those aged 20–24. Millions of youth are neither in school nor working, and rates of unemployment and underemployment are nearly two to three times higher for black and Latino youth. Despite these glaring statistics, far more attention has been given to diminished social prospects facing young people in Europe than in America, and this is what makes this book so important. The volume’s Introduction places the issue in a global and national context, while suggesting a range of solutions and discussing the distinctive cultural ideology of the American dream as it intersects with young people's diverse experiences. Chapters in each of the book’s four sections explore structural and cultural causes of youth unemployment, their ramifications for both native and immigrant youth, and how both middle- and working-class youth across diverse races and ethnicities are affected within and outside the legal economy. Overall, the book insists that because the youth of today face greater insecurity than earlier generations, the time has come to address factors like technological changes, the rise of the 24/7 and “gig” economy, and the polarization between “good” and “bad” jobs; thus, the book features chapters on potential solutions including effective school-to-work models, shorter and shared hours, full employment, and basic income.Less
This book confronts the persistent issues of youth unemployment and worsening socioeconomic precarity in the United States. While overall unemployment has declined, the unemployment rate remains nearly twice as high for young people 16–19 years of age and nearly three times as high for those aged 20–24. Millions of youth are neither in school nor working, and rates of unemployment and underemployment are nearly two to three times higher for black and Latino youth. Despite these glaring statistics, far more attention has been given to diminished social prospects facing young people in Europe than in America, and this is what makes this book so important. The volume’s Introduction places the issue in a global and national context, while suggesting a range of solutions and discussing the distinctive cultural ideology of the American dream as it intersects with young people's diverse experiences. Chapters in each of the book’s four sections explore structural and cultural causes of youth unemployment, their ramifications for both native and immigrant youth, and how both middle- and working-class youth across diverse races and ethnicities are affected within and outside the legal economy. Overall, the book insists that because the youth of today face greater insecurity than earlier generations, the time has come to address factors like technological changes, the rise of the 24/7 and “gig” economy, and the polarization between “good” and “bad” jobs; thus, the book features chapters on potential solutions including effective school-to-work models, shorter and shared hours, full employment, and basic income.
Anne Balay
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469647098
- eISBN:
- 9781469647111
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469647098.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Trucking has changed dramatically since the 1970s, with increased regulations and reduced pay. Queer people, women, and racial minorities have entered the industry during these years. How are these ...
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Trucking has changed dramatically since the 1970s, with increased regulations and reduced pay. Queer people, women, and racial minorities have entered the industry during these years. How are these changes related, and what are their larger consequences?Less
Trucking has changed dramatically since the 1970s, with increased regulations and reduced pay. Queer people, women, and racial minorities have entered the industry during these years. How are these changes related, and what are their larger consequences?
Anthony Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529204018
- eISBN:
- 9781529204063
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529204018.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This chapter explores the absence of protection for employees within the service economy. Some employees are exploited by employers who extract ‘free’ work through practices such as underpayment of ...
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This chapter explores the absence of protection for employees within the service economy. Some employees are exploited by employers who extract ‘free’ work through practices such as underpayment of the minimum wage, cash-in-hand work, and work ‘trials’ paid at exploitatively low day rates. The labour market instability highlighted previously further impacts upon employees made redundant as some operators struggle to recover from the economic downturn. Employees are paid meagre redundancies and thrown back into the large pool of surplus labour. Others heed the call for self-employment and freedom or flexibility but this is often precarious and problematic. The final section of the chapter considers the impact of labour market conditions upon mental health and well-being and ultimately demonstrates the negative impact upon some employees who require medical solutions to structural problems.Less
This chapter explores the absence of protection for employees within the service economy. Some employees are exploited by employers who extract ‘free’ work through practices such as underpayment of the minimum wage, cash-in-hand work, and work ‘trials’ paid at exploitatively low day rates. The labour market instability highlighted previously further impacts upon employees made redundant as some operators struggle to recover from the economic downturn. Employees are paid meagre redundancies and thrown back into the large pool of surplus labour. Others heed the call for self-employment and freedom or flexibility but this is often precarious and problematic. The final section of the chapter considers the impact of labour market conditions upon mental health and well-being and ultimately demonstrates the negative impact upon some employees who require medical solutions to structural problems.
Kelly Bogue
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447350538
- eISBN:
- 9781447350545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447350538.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter begins by highlighting the circumstances and conditions of participants’ lives preceding the introduction of the Bedroom Tax policy. This serves as a starting point for the chapter, ...
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This chapter begins by highlighting the circumstances and conditions of participants’ lives preceding the introduction of the Bedroom Tax policy. This serves as a starting point for the chapter, illustrating that the policy was introduced into lives that were already characterised by income insecurity, employment precarity, and ill-health. It charts the ways in which participants responded to the implementation of the policy and the impact it had in informing decisions about moving or absorbing the extra rental expenditure. This chapter is concerned with the impact at the household level documenting how life became more difficult as the extra financial outlay placed a strain on participants financially, socially, and psychologically. In the final section, the focus turns to how the policy worked to transmit insecurity into the lives of participants’ children, furthering the inter-generational transmission of inequality through the introduction of a precarious housing situation which had not been there previously.Less
This chapter begins by highlighting the circumstances and conditions of participants’ lives preceding the introduction of the Bedroom Tax policy. This serves as a starting point for the chapter, illustrating that the policy was introduced into lives that were already characterised by income insecurity, employment precarity, and ill-health. It charts the ways in which participants responded to the implementation of the policy and the impact it had in informing decisions about moving or absorbing the extra rental expenditure. This chapter is concerned with the impact at the household level documenting how life became more difficult as the extra financial outlay placed a strain on participants financially, socially, and psychologically. In the final section, the focus turns to how the policy worked to transmit insecurity into the lives of participants’ children, furthering the inter-generational transmission of inequality through the introduction of a precarious housing situation which had not been there previously.
