Journal
HUMAN RELATIONS
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/00187267231186261
Keywords
ambivalence; Butler; Lacan; precarity; subjectivity; vulnerability
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Most workers around the world are part of the precariat, facing non-permanent, low-pay, and insecure jobs. This study explores their subjective experiences through in-depth interviews, finding that the interplay of recognition and misrecognition plays a crucial role. Precarious workers develop unconscious attachments to neoliberal values, which are closely linked to the logic of precarity. Understanding this ambivalence can help develop a more nuanced view of their vulnerability.
Most workers around the world are part of the precariat, characterized by non-permanent, informal, short-term, low-pay, low-skill, and insecure jobs. While there have been many socio-economic critiques of the negative impacts of precarity on workers, the literature has increasingly asked how precarious workers actually live their lives and how their subjectivities are produced on a daily basis. We contribute to this literature by providing a psychosocial account of the ambivalent experiences of precarious workers. We contend that the interplay of recognition and misrecognition plays a crucial role, as the vulnerable, working subject becomes entangled in a complex web of recognizability. We present insights from 104 in-depth interviews, providing a Lacanian analysis of how precarious workers develop unconscious attachments to neoliberal values that are central to the logic of precarity. Understanding this ambivalence helps us develop a more nuanced view of an ethics of precarious workers' vulnerability.
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