Positioning precarity: The contingent nature of precarious work in structure and practice

Abstract

Conceptualising precarity has come to rest on the multi-dimensional and differentiated insecurities of job and worker, this however belies the relationship between structure and experience where precarity originates. To bridge that relationship, I employ the landscape concept to position workers relative to the structural contingency of precarious work. To study this landscape, I conducted an ethnography involving job searching, working, and interviewing workers. While certainly insecure, these jobs displayed parallel characteristics of streamlined hiring and short-notice starts which workers took advantage of. I explore three ideal-typical ‘jobs’—the first, only, and best job—to examine how vulnerability is balanced with contingency to produce precarity. This analysis and the landscape approach locate the political-economic transformation of work in the context of workers' lives and their labour market position. Taking precarious work is an act of balancing one's vulnerabilities in a way that constructs and thus naturalises precarity. Overall, the article contributes an image of an economy where workers have to be opportunistic in a continual struggle for work while stratified by their personal circumstances and position in this labour market.