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Precarious work: Economic, sociological and political perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Shaun Wilson  and
Norbert Ebert
Shaun Wilson
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Australia; The University of New South Wales, Australia
Norbert Ebert*
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Australia
*
Norbert Ebert, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. Email: Norbert.Ebert@mq.edu.au
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Abstract

This article brings together labour relations, sociological and political perspectives on precarious employment in Australia, identifying local contexts of insecurity and setting them within the economics of regional supply chains involving the use of migrant labour. In developing the concept of precarious work-societies, it argues that precarity is a source of individual and social vulnerability and distress, affecting family, housing and communal security. The concept of depoliticisation is used to describe the processes of displacement, whereby the social consequences of precarious work come to be seen as beyond the reach of agency. Using evidence from social attitudes surveys, we explore links between the resulting sense of political marginalisation and hostility to immigrants. Re-politicisation strategies will need to lay bare the common basis of shared experiences of insecurity and explore ways of integrating precarious workers into new community and global alliances.

Keywords

A13J15J61M54Depoliticisationflexibilityinsecuritymigrationprecarious work-societyprecaritypsychological distresssocial differentiationsocial integration
Type
Introduction
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 24 , Issue 3: Symposium – Precarious work: Economic, sociological and political perspectives , September 2013 , pp. 263 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013

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