A Precariat Charter: From denizens to citizens

Description

Guy Standing's immensely influential 2011 book introduced the Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. Standing outlined the increasingly global nature of the Precariat as a social phenomenon, especially in the light of the social unrest characterized by the Occupy movements. He outlined the political risks they might pose, and at what might be done to diminish inequality and allow such workers to find a more stable labour identity.His concept and his conclusions have been widely taken up by thinkers from Noam Chomsky to Zygmunt Bauman, by political activists and by policy-makers. This new book takes the debate a stage further-looking in more detail at the kind of progressive politics that might form the vision of a Good Society in which such inequality, and the instability it produces is reduced. A Precariat Charter discusses how rights - political, civil, social and economic – have been denied to the Precariat, and at the importance of redefining our social contract around notions of associational freedom, agency and the commons. The ecological imperative is also discussed – something that was only hinted at in Standing's original book but has been widely discussed in relation to the Precariat by theorists and activists alike. Cover Half title From Reviews of the Precariat Title Copyright Contents Preface List of abbreviations 1 Denizens and the precariat 2 The austerity era 3 The precariat grows 4 Confronting the utilitarian consensus 5 Towards a Precariat Charter Article 1: Redefine work as productive and reproductive activity Article 2: Reform labour statistics Article 3: Make recruitment practices brief encounters Article 4: Regulate flexible labour Article 5: Promote associational freedom Articles 6–10: Reconstruct occupational communities Articles 11–15: Stop class-based migration policy Article 16: Ensure due process for all Article 17: Remove poverty traps and precarity traps Article 18: Make a bonfire of benefit assessment tests Article 19: Stop demonizing the disabled Article 20: Stop workfare now! Article 21: Regulate payday loans and student loans Article 22: Institute a right to financial knowledge and advice Article 23: Decommodify education Article 24: Make a bonfire of subsidies Article 25: Move towards a universal basic income Article 26: Share capital via sovereign wealth funds Article 27: Revive the commons Article 28: Revive deliberative democracy Article 29: Re-marginalize charities 6 There is a future Bibliography Index