Insociology andeconomics, theprecariat (/prɪˈkɛəriət/) is asocial class formed by people suffering fromprecarity, which means existing without predictability or security, affecting material or psychologicalwelfare. The term is aportmanteau mergingprecarious withproletariat.[1]
Unlike the proletariat class of industrial workers in the 20th century who lacked their ownmeans of production and hence sold theirlabor to live, members of the precariat are only partially involved in labor and must undertake extensive unremunerated activities that are essential if they are to retain access to jobs and to decent earnings. Classic examples of such unpaid activities include continually having to search for work (including preparing for and attending job interviews), as well as being expected to be perpetually responsive to calls for "gig" work (yet without being paid an actual wage for being "on call").
The hallmark of the precariat class is the condition of lack ofjob security, including intermittent employment orunderemployment and the resultant precarious existence.[2] The emergence of this class has been ascribed to the entrenchment ofneoliberalcapitalism.[3][4]
Some theorists suggest that the young precariat class in Europe has become a serious issue in the early part of the 21st century.[5] This has been linked with major mass political developments including theBrexit referendum[6][7] in the United Kingdom, and thefirst presidency of Donald Trump[6][7] in the United States.[8][9] The globalCOVID-19 pandemic has particularly exacerbatedfood insecurity in the United States.[10] A survey conducted by theEuropean Council on Foreign Relations discovered that only one third of Germans and one quarter of Italians and French had enough money remaining at the end of the month for discretionary spending.[11]
The British economistGuy Standing has analysed the precariat as a new emergingsocial class in work done for the think tankPolicy Network and theWorld Economic Forum.[8] In his 2014 book entitledA Precariat Charter he argued that all citizens have a right to socially inherited wealth.[12][13] The latest in the series is titledThe Precariat: The New Dangerous Class[2][14] where he proposedbasic income as a solution for addressing the problem.
The analysis of the results of theGreat British Class Survey of 2013, a collaboration between theBBC and researchers from several UK universities, contended there is a new model of class structure consisting of seven classes, ranging from theElite at the top to the Precariat at the bottom.[15] The Precariat class was envisaged as "the most deprived British class of all with low levels of economic, cultural and social capital." This was contrasted with "the Technical Middle Class" in Great Britain in that instead of having disposable income but no interests, people of the new Precariat Class have all sorts of potential activities they like to engage in but cannot do any of them because they have no money, insecure lives, and are usually trapped in old industrial parts of the country.
The precariat class has been emerging in societies such asJapan, where it numbers over two million.[16] Both in the West and in Japan, a similar group of people are calledNEETs.
