Open AccessIs the Precariat a Class?
Author(s) -
Erik Olín Wright
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
global labour journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1918-6711
DOI - 10.15173/glj.v7i2.2583
Subject(s) - precarity , livelihood , marxist philosophy , working class , class (philosophy) , sociology , gender studies , political economy , political science , law , history , epistemology , politics , philosophy , archaeology , agriculture
Precariousness is a pervasive and increasing condition of life in both the developed and less developed regions of the world. Guy Standing has proposed a reconceptualisation of these trends from precarity as a condition to the precariat as a class distinct from the working class. This article presents a Marxist critique of this reconceptualisation on two principle grounds: first, that the material interests of people in the precariat and in the working class are not sufficiently opposed to each other for these to constitute two distinct classes; and second, that across the various segments of the precariat the optimal strategies for securing a livelihood are not sufficiently unified for the precariat as a whole to constitute a class.