Sociology I / Work and the Gendered Labour Market
Practice question · Select all that apply

Which objections have been raised against treating the precariat as a class in the making?

Hints
  1. Three of these are standard criticisms of the concept; one denies the phenomenon entirely.
  2. Ask whether a category can do class analysis if its members have nothing in common but insecurity.
Show the answer
  • B. Insecure employment is historically normal rather than a novel development
  • C. The category groups graduates on short contracts with undeclared migrant labourers
  • D. The group is too heterogeneous for its members to share economic interests
Why

The three real objections all press the same point: shared exposure to insecurity is not the same as a shared position in production, and class analysis has traditionally required the second. Standing’s reply is that the shared relation to labour-market institutions is itself structural. The dispute is unresolved and worth knowing as a dispute.

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