Precarity in 21st century

Guy Standing on new precariat

Precariat:

• “precarious” and “proletariate” → New lower class in 21st century that faces economic insecurity

• result of neoliberalism since 80s/70s and ongoing process of deindustrialisation in the west → old working class does not exist

• sometimes seens as dangerous → bc of its vulnerability and susceptibility to radical political ideologies

Class vs. cultural identity

• Discourses of cultural diversity and identitty politics have replaced debates about economic inequality and masks evils of neoliberlism

  → Do current debates about identity which focus on appreciation of differences overshadow more pressing and more fundamental issue of social inequality?