2009 PrecariousWorkInsecureWorkersEm
- (Kalleberg, 2009) ⇒ Arne L Kalleberg. (2009). “Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition.” In: American Sociological Review, 74. doi:10.1177/000312240907400101
Subject Headings: Precarious Work, Good Job, Bad Job.
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Abstract
The growth of precarious work since the 1970s has emerged as a core contemporary concern within politics, in the media, and among researchers. Uncertain and unpredictable work contrasts with the relative security that characterized the three decades following World War II. Precarious work constitutes a global challenge that has a wide range of consequences cutting across many areas of concern to sociologists. Hence, it is increasingly important to understand the new workplace arrangements that generate precarious work and worker insecurity. A focus on employment relations forms the foundation of theories of the institutions and structures that generate precarious work and the cultural and individual factors that influence people's responses to uncertainty. Sociologists are well-positioned to explain, offer insight, and provide input into public policy about such changes and the state of contemporary employment relations.
1. Introduction
Work is a core activity in society. It is central to individual identity, links individuals to each other, and locates people within the stratification system. Perhaps only kin relationships are as influential in people’s everyday lives. Work also reveals much about the social order, how it is changing, and the kinds of problems and issues that people (and their governments) must address. Accordingly, the study of work has long been a central field in sociology, beginning with classical sociologists such as Durkheim (in his Division of Labor), Marx (in his theories of the labor process and alienation), and Weber (in his conceptualizations of bureaucracy and social closure).
For several decades, both in the United States and worldwide, social, economic, and political forces have aligned to make work more precarious. By “precarious work,” I mean employment that is uncertain, unpredictable, and risky from the point of view of the worker. Resulting distress, obvious in a variety of forms, reminds us daily of such precarity. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates (and likely underestimates) that more than 30 million full-time workers lost their jobs involuntarily between the early 1980s and 2004 (Uchitelle 2006). Job loss often triggers many unpleasant events, such as loss of health insurance and enhanced debt. Mortgage foreclosure rates have increased fivefold since the early 1970s (Hacker 2006). U.S. personal bankruptcy filings are at record highs (Leicht and Fitzgerald 2007), and nearly two-thirds of bankruptcy filers reported a job problem (Sullivan, Warren, and Westbrook 2001).
Precarious work, of course, is not necessarily new or novel to the current era; it has existed since the launch of paid employment as a primary source of sustenance. Nevertheless, the growth and obviousness of precarious work since the 1970s has crystallized an important concern. Bourdieu (1998) saw précarité as the root of problematic social issues in the twenty-first century. Beck (2000) describes the creation of a “risk society” and a “new political economy of insecurity.” Others have called the events of the past quarter-century the second Great Transformation (Webster, Lambert, and Bezuidenhout 2008).
Precarious work has far-reaching consequences that cut across many areas of concern to sociologists. Creating insecurity for many people, it has pervasive consequences not only for the nature of work, workplaces, and people’s work experiences, but also for many non-work individual (e.g., stress, education), social (e.g., family, community), and political (e.g., [[stability, democratization) outcomes. It is thus important that we understand the new workplace arrangements that generate precarious work and insecurity.
I concentrate in this address on employment, which is work that produces earnings (or profit, if one is self-employed). Equating work with pay or profit is of course a limited view, as there are many activities that create value but are unpaid, such as those that take place in the household. Given my focus largely on industrial countries, particularly the United States, I emphasize precarious employment in the formal economy. [1]
- ↑ 2 Employment precarity results when people lose their jobs or fear losing their jobs, when they lack alternative employment opportunities in the labor market, and when workers experience diminished opportunities to obtain and maintain particular skills. Other aspects of employment precarity are either determinants or consequences of these basic forms of uncertainty, including income precarity, work insecurity (unsafe work), and representation precarity (unavailability of collective voice) (Standing 1999).
References
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- (Standing, 1999) ⇒ Guy Standing. (1999). “Global Labour Flexibility: Seeking Distributive Justice." Palgrave Macmillan,
- (Sullivan et al., 2000) ⇒ Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook. (2000). “The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt." Yale University Press. ISBN:0300091710
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| Author | volume | Date Value | title | type | journal | titleUrl | doi | note | year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 PrecariousWorkInsecureWorkersEm | Arne L Kalleberg | Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition | 10.1177/000312240907400101 | 2009 |