The precariat: who’s in it and who isn’t?
The genuine concerns of workers trapped in the insecure platform economy can be addressed without us all worrying about a looming dystopia
‘The battle for decent work,” said President Michael D Higgins last week, “will be one of the defining struggles of the coming decades.” And on the front lines of that battle are “the precariat”, those whose work is characterised by job insecurity, unpredictable hours, low wages and few rights.
“Precariat” is a neologism, drawn from “precarious” and “proletariat”, coined by French sociologists in the 1980s to describe temporary or seasonal workers and popularised ...
