The Precariat

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com.
This book presents the Precariat - an emerging class, comprising the rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, moving in and out of jobs that give little meaning to their lives.
Guy Standing argues that this class is producing instabilities in society. Although it would be wrong to characterise members of the Precariat as victims, many are frustrated and angry. The Precariat is dangerous because it is internally divided, leading to the villainisation of migrants and other vulnerable groups. Lacking agency, its members may be susceptible to the siren calls of political extremism.
To prevent a 'politics of inferno', Guy Standing argues for a 'politics of paradise', in which redistribution and income security are reconfi gured in a new kind of Good Society, and in which the fears and aspirations of the Precariat are made central to a progressive strategy.

Guy Standing is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. He has previously been Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath, UK, Professor of Labour Economics at Monash University, Australia and Director of the Socio-Economic Security Programme of the International Labour Organization. He is co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network. His recent books include Work after Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship (2009) and Beyond the New Paternalism: Basic Security as Equality (2002).

Preface
Abbreviations
1 The Precariat
2 Why the Precariat is Growing
3 Who Enters the Precariat
4 Migrants: Victims, Villains or
Heroes?
5 Labour, Work and the Time Squeeze
6 A Politics of inferno
7 A Politics of
Paradise
Bibliography
Index