by Jenna van Draanen | Dec 18, 2014 | Research
SUMMARY: This article discusses the concept of a precariat, the “social class in the making” which the author describes as arising from increasing unemployment and underemployment. The concept signifies a unification of two previously identified groups: the precariously employed and the proletariat. The author argues for basic income as a way to solve the issues this emerging precariat is facing.
Stanislas Jourdan, “Le precariat: <<Une classe sociale en devenir>> [The precariat: A class in the making]” Le Souffle C’est Ma Vie” October 1, 2010.
by Harry Pitts | Oct 16, 2014 | Research
In this interview with Stanislas Jourdan, Guy Standing discusses how the basic income would remedy some of the insecurities experienced by the ‘precariat’.
The full article is available here:
Stanislas Jourdan, “Guy Standin
g: “The Precariat is growing angry”, Boiling Frogs, 8th November 2012
by Harry Pitts | Jun 28, 2014 | Research
‘By way of addressing security beyond the workplace, [Standing’s] most compelling suggestion is a basic citizen’s income, payable to all, which would increase the bargaining power of people at the low end, and by cutting across the orthodox benefit systems’ serial poverty traps, actually increase the incentive to work. This idea has been circulating for at least 40 years, and may take just as long to arrive in mainstream debate. But if it seems outlandish by contemporary standards, that actually only heightens its appeal: the same, after all, was once said of the most basic aspects of the welfare state; and even the weekend.’
John Harris, “A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens – review”, The Guardian, 9th April 2014.
John Harris
by Karl Widerquist | Jun 16, 2014 | Research
Abstract: This article traces present-day policy debates on precarious employment to the nineteenth century. Liberal and paternalist versions of state authority emerged as responses to early capitalist development, and precariousness was an issue that contributed to the differentiation between them. The author argues that these connections with the bases of state power help explain why radical alternative approaches [such as basic income] find it so hard to get a hearing in mainstream political circles.
Bill Jordan, “Authoritarianism and the precariat.” Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, Volume 3, Issue 3-4, 2013, pages 388-403
by Karl Widerquist | Jun 16, 2014 | Research
SUMMARY: Guy Standing’s book, The Precariat: A New and Dangerous Class, addresses labor market insecurity and argues for basic income as a solution. The journal, Global Discourse, devotes an entire issue to the Precariat. According Matthew Johnson, who was the guest editor of the special issue, “This issue of Global Discourse seeks to explore the nature, shape and context of precariat, evaluating the internal consistency and application of the concept, particularly with regard to: changes in the sociology of class; democracy, participation and representation; the relationship between precariat and multitude; the means by which precariat might become a ‘class-for-itself’; place, migration and globalization; poverty and precarity; the subjective experience of precarity, and forms of resistance. The articles published reflect the extent, both with regard to paradigmatic engagement and site of study, to which the concept has permeated the consciousness of academics and those subject to precariousness (indeed, the former appear increasingly to be included in the latter).”
Matthew Johnson (editor), “Special Issue: The Precariat.” Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, Volume 3, Issue 3-4, 2013
