Precarious Economy Research Articles

Aesthetic capital as a work strategy among precarious migrant coaches in China’s leisure industry

ABSTRACT This article explores how specific kinds of aesthetic capital enable urban-to-urban migrant workers to secure social mobility in the informal labour market of China’s leisure industry. Focusing on aesthetic capital accumulation and transference, it investigates how gym coaches, hip-hop dancers, and performers trade on their bodily assets and taste and seize opportunities to maximise capital when the fitness and leisure market creates occupational niches in metropolitan cities. It draws on ethnographic data from urban migrant coaches in the leisure industry in eastern and western cities in China. The findings reveal the dynamics of personal attributes, work strategies, and the increasing importance of aesthetic capital in the precarious economy. The findings enhance our understanding of how modern capitalism sustains interest in aesthetic and affective cycles.

Involution, No Revolution: Technocapitalism and Intern Labour

The global economic downturn due to the pandemic has resulted in shrinking the digital market in big economies such as the USA and China. After the pandemic, many of the major tech and internet-based companies had to take action to reverse their declining balance sheets and look for ways to financially rebound. Illustrated in this paper is how these tech firms in China could further advance their economy by minimising their paid manpower by working with/under the education system and inventing new temporary intern positions as semi-(im)material labour to expand their workforce. Based on our ethnographic work and interviews with interns, we elucidate the case of a Chinese tech intern, which exemplifies what we refer to as involution. Involution is a process by which the new generation is induced to accept a much more precarious economy as a result of nominal pay, yet can nevertheless survive, meet their daily needs and dwell in big cities, rather than engaging a radical change or revolution.

New theories and politics for working class organizing in the gig and precarious world of work

The emergence of labour conflicts across different sectors of the gig and precarious economy is challenging established industrial relations (IR) frameworks and some of its political implications. Despite its analytical merits, Kelly’s union-centred mobilization theory appears insufficient to explain these mobilizations, characterized by informal networks and self-organization. Evidence from the sectors of logistics and cloudwork, where processes of digitalization have been rampant in recent years, shows that there is a need to build a more processual account of worker mobilizations in which non-institutional factors play a major role. Drawing on the European social movement tradition, in this article the authors consider two factors, supportive communities and political activism traditions, as key to understanding critical cases of mobilization in the gig economy and renewing IR theories of collective action through a class-based approach.

Against the Frame: Local Media Coverage of Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot

Abstract The 2017–2018 basic income pilot in the Canadian province of Ontario attempted to alleviate poverty in a precarious economy. With three communities participating, we examine how the pilot was framed by local media, permitting a look at the narratives that were dominant in the participating communities. In essence, were recipients framed as “deserving?” How the media addresses this question can set the foundation for whether policymakers can proceed with basic income. Given that media coverage of poverty alleviation in the United States generally follows an episodic frame, which puts focus on individuals and their particular circumstances (i.e. lifestyle choices), while major Canadian media generally shows a mix of frames, results of a media content analysis at the local level shows basic-income pilot was covered mainly through thematic frames, which emphasizes systemic factors and more general social conditions, which support state action on basic income.

Fishing, thieving, witchcraft: apprehension and mistrust in maritime West Africa

AbstractThis article explores the ‘apprehension’ that permeates life in coastal Sierra Leone as fisherfolk struggle to navigate a precarious economy of overfished waters and overstrained relationships. In a context of deepening uncertainty, social vigilance has come to be regarded as a key survival skill. At sea, even as fishermen strain their senses for evidence of shoaling fish, they remain equally vigilant to rival crews, who may seek to deceive them in their competition for the same depleted resource. When crews return home with empty nets, again, exchange partners regard them with suspicion, watchful for clues that they could have sold their catch covertly in another coastal town. When businesses founder or savings evaporate, people are quick to assume their fortunes must have been invisibly robbed ‘in a witch way’ by one of their neighbours. And yet, despite the deep mistrust and apprehension through which people regard their social world, moral discourses about this supposedly rampant trickery are nuanced. Despair at believing themselves to have been grifted in some unseen way is often tempered by a weary empathy for their antagonists’ poverty, and even grudging respect for their skills of dissimulation.

Book review: The digital is kid stuff: Making creative laborers for a precarious economy

Book review: The digital is kid stuff: Making creative laborers for a precarious economy

HOLISTIC RISK INDEX FOR DECISION-MAKING IN MANAGEMENT OF RUST Hemileia vastatrix IN COFFEE PLANTATIONS IN HONDURAS

One of the diseases that most affect coffee plantations (Coffea arabica) is the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, which causes rust. The lack of a decision-making method with a holistic approach limits the effective management of this disease. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the Holistic Risk Index (HRI) for rust in coffee-growing zones of El Lago de Yojoa, El Paraíso and Olancho, Honduras. First, a participatory diagnosis of coffee industry was implemented; surveys were conducted to determine the socioeconomic status of 43 coffee producers, also their coffee farms were sampled. The diagnosis indicated that deficient management of the coffee plantations, the incidence of pests and a precarious economy for coffee growers were the most important problems. One threat variable (leaves with rust); three vulnerability variables (altitude, coffee variety and shade); and three response capacity variables (technification, harvesting and productive coffee trees) were identified. The HRI and resilience were related by means of a power equation and from that result the criteria for categories were determined. When comparing the three coffee-growing zones with a multivariate analysis of variance and a canonical discriminant analysis for the set of HRI component values, the El Paraíso coffee-growing zone was different from the Lago de Yojoa zone, but these two zones did not differ from the Olancho zone. The same result was found for the response capacity, where the harvest and technification variables had a greater influence in El Paraíso and the productive category variable of coffee trees was more important in Olancho. Finally, a work plan was proposed to reduce the risk and increase the resilience of producers to rust.

Beyond Mainstream Media and Communication Perspectives on the Arab Uprisings

This editorial argues for more research connecting media and communication as a discipline and the Arab Uprisings that goes beyond the mainstream techno-deterministic perceptions. The contributions in this thematic issue can be summarized around three central arguments: First, mainstream media, like TV and journalism, are central and relevant actors in the post-Arab Uprisings phase which have often been overlooked in previous literature. Second, marginalized actors are still engaged in asymmetric power struggles due to their vulnerable status, the precarious political economy, or a marginalized geographic location outside centralized polities. Finally, the third strand of argument is the innovative transnational geographic and chronological synapses that studying media and Arab Uprisings can bring. The editorial calls for more critical and interdisciplinary approaches that follow a region marked by inherent instability and uncertainty.

Unemployment Experts: Governing the Job Search in the New Economy

In recent years, sociologists have examined unemployment and job searching as important arenas in which workers are socialized to accept the terms of an increasingly precarious economy. While noting the importance of expert knowledge in manufacturing the consent of workers, research has largely overlooked the experts themselves that produce such knowledge. Who are these experts and what kinds of advice do they give? Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted at three job search clubs, the author develops a three-fold typology of “unemployment experts”: Job Coaches present a technical diagnosis that centers mastery of job-hunting techniques; Self-help Gurus present a moral diagnosis focused on the job seeker’s attitude; and Skill-certifiers present a human capital diagnosis revolving around the job seeker’s productive capacities. By offering alternative diagnoses and remedies for unemployment, these experts give job seekers a sense of choice in interpreting their situation and acting in the labor market. However, the multiple discourses ultimately help to secure consent to precarious labor markets by drawing attention to a range of individual deficiencies within workers while obfuscating structural and relational explanations of unemployment. The author also finds that many unemployment experts themselves faced dislocations from professional careers and are making creative claims to expertise. By focusing on experts and their varied messages, this paper reveals how the victims of precarious work inadvertently help to legitimate the new employment regime.

Housing, family, and life‐course in post‐growth Japan

AbstractThe state‐guided housing system in Japan during the “post‐war growth period” has consistently driven the expansion of the family‐owned housing sector, in association with an increase in independent nuclear households. Nevertheless, Japan entered a “post‐growth era” in the 1990s, characterized by a more precarious economy, aging population, and policy shifts toward a more neoliberal course. People's housing paths have since noticeably diverged, in relation to both individualization and familization in life‐courses. However, government housing policy has remained directed toward family home ownership while excluding unmarried individuals, one‐person households, and renter households. This is beginning to widen social inequalities. Using the case of post‐growth Japan, this study focuses on the roles that individualization and familization play in reshaping housing paths, and examines the extent to which home‐owning societies centered on conventional nuclear households are sustainable.

Economic Crisis and Professions: Chartered Accountants in Zimbabwe

This study examined the effects of a declining economy on the profession of chartered accountants (CAs) in Zimbabwe. The study adopted a qualitative approach using a pragmatic grounded theory design. Primary data were obtained through in-depth interviews with five purposively sampled CAs and two key informants drawn from the professional body and an institution that trains CAs. Furthermore, secondary data were drawn from the professional body’s archives and from newspapers. Data from interviews and documents were analyzed through thematic analysis and content analysis, respectively. The study has revealed that the profession of CAs has been changing in response to the declining economy and the changes include losing its status and autonomy, increased competition from other accounting fields and compromised professional standards. It also emerged that professionals themselves engage in both negative and positive activities that enable them to survive the effects of a declining economy. Recommendations are provided for the professionals and the professional body in dealing with the impact of a precarious economy.

Supervivencia y crisis del Instituto de Ciencias de Zacatecas (1884-1920)

El presente trabajo fue elaborado con base en el análisis y hermenéutica de fuentes primarias y secundarias. La educación superior tuvo diferentes etapas y evoluciones en México, con antecedentes históricos desde la cultura virreinal; nunca exenta de problemas, la moderna “vida universitaria” fue establecida en las más importantes ciudades. Durante la etapa conocida como Porfiriato la educación elemental y la superior quedaron perfiladas en el Positivismo, doctrina social y soporte del régimen político, con la participación en materia de instrucción pública de los funcionarios llamados “Científicos”. En los estados, cada gobernador, alineado a la autoridad federal, se enfrentó a diferentes problemas en materia educativa. Se trataba de alfabetizar a una gran población que carecía de la instrucción más elemental; también atender a una educación superior, desde el nivel de secundaria y preparatoria hasta el profesional. Es notorio el papel del Instituto de Ciencias en la formación del profesorado para la educación elemental en algunos etapas de su funcionamiento. La hipótesis del presente trabajo: en Zacatecas, la incursión de muchos gobernadores, la precaria economía de la mayoría de la población, la lucha armada iniciada en 1910, la crisis de valores, las pocas oportunidades del ascenso educativo y social y hasta el desinterés de la juventud, se combinaron para caracterizar una época de crisis académica en el Instituto Científico, máxima casa de estudios en la entidad. La situación no era privativa de este plantel; los conflictos y problemas internos caracterizaron a la gran mayoría de estas escuelas en todo el país. Se concluye que la situación económica y política en el estado de Zacatecas, los estilos en el ejercicio del poder y las ideas y concepciones filosóficas de los gobernantes, se reflejaron en la vida académica y en los problemas del Instituto.

The South African government's response to COVID-19

PurposeThis paper provides a critical analysis of the South African government's response to the COVID-19 crisis and its effect on state finances and budgets.Design/methodology/approachThe paper critically analyses publicly available data.FindingsThe South African government's initial health response was praised by the international community, given the early lockdown and extensive testing regime. The lockdown devastated an already precarious economy, which led to negative social consequences. The initial lockdown delayed the epidemic, but subsequently, the infection rate climbed, requiring new restrictions, suggesting further economic disruption. The government has had to increase its borrowings, while the future tax take is forecast to be significantly reduced, a combination which will lead to a severely constrained public purse for many years to come. This will limit the government's ability to address the basic social needs that predated the COVID-19 crisis.Originality/valueThis is one of the first academic papers to critically assess the effect of the South African government's response to the COVID-19 crisis on state finances and budgets.

AnneCase and AngusDeaton, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 312 p. $27.95

AnneCase and AngusDeaton, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 312 p. $27.95

Precarious economies: capitalism’s creative destruction in the age of neoliberal campus planning

ABSTRACTThe Precarious Economies working group engaged the University of Nevada Reno’s (UNR) Campus Master Plan (CMP) from the perspective of precarity—broadly understood as material conditions of vulnerability that threaten living bodies and are outside of one’s control. Employing traditional and in situ methods of rhetorical analysis and fieldwork, we investigated how the creative destruction of Reno’s emerging technology economy implicates people within precarity frames through facets of daily living including labor, housing, and transportation. Our mixed approaches allowed us to search for the material impacts of capitalism’s development on the lives of Reno’s residents and see the CMP’s (re)distribution of precarity as a symptom of capitalism’s creative destruction. In this essay, we describe the methods of our research and reflect on what the hybrid research approach of the working group teaches us about UNR/Reno and the contemporary function of capitalism.

Coliving housing: home cultures of precarity for the new creative class

ABSTRACT The economy is entrenched in the domestic and the domestic enables the economy. We consider this dialectical relationship between the economy and ‘home’ through a case study of coliving, a new type of privately delivered shared housing emerging in response to increasingly precarious economic conditions. We examine how the proliferation of coliving signifies shifting meanings and cultures of home for digital nomads, the latest iteration of the creative class. We draw upon a content analysis of twenty websites of coliving organisations located in New York and San Francisco, United States of America. Our analysis uncovers emergent meanings and cultures of home that are strongly associated with economic conditions. We consider how the spatial manifestations of a precarious economy are supported by new homemaking practices and imaginaries of home – what may be termed home cultures of precarity. Coliving challenges conventional meanings of home: a reprieve from work, private, secure and inhabited long term. Instead, home is a capital accumulation technology for this cohort – a site for the active production of capital. The ideal home for the new creative class is a place of work that is mobile and social. The economy, meanings of home and homemaking practices are co-productive and co-emergent.

Health State of Human Capital in the Economic Theory

The importance of human capital for economic well-being is historic. Theories show that people's development is the basis for the sustainable growth of the economy. The state of health of the population has always influenced the economic state and was also influenced by the economy; thus, in the context of a precarious economy, lack of food and low levels of living lead to various diseases, as in France, eighteenth century to the revolution of 1789, there have been 30 years of famine and disease caused by lack of food, which has stagnated economic evolution. Thus, the topic of actuality, regarding the field of economic growth and the increasing integration of human health in this process, are the premises of a complex analysis of an interdisciplinary approach. The importance of the topic is derived from understanding the health of human capital as a resource for the development of society and not as a resource consumer while understanding the role of the individual decision in managing their health. Beyond the individual perspective on health, its subjective perception and individual decision-making for the choice of behavior that maximizes health, the state can be an important factor in ensuring the functioning of national health systems. The main objective of this paper is to identify, based on the specialized literature consulted on the impact of human capital and, in particular, its health, on economic growth, by analyzing the ways and the factors by which human capital influences economic activity.

Pedagogy, Precarity, and Persuasion: The Case for Re/mix Literacies

In the contemporary cultural conditions of unstable knowledge/truth, precarious economies and 24/7 media saturation, we need to rethink knowing and learning. While there is much general agreement that the means and modes of communication have changed, and, with it, the ways we approach media, education, culture, society, citizenship, commerce, politics, art, science and everyday life, there is a diversity of terms to describe the change, each with an animating spirit and intellectual tradition behind it. There is a disconnect between school pedagogies, situated literacy practices in everyday life, and the types of abilities and knowledges needed for workplace and civic participation. Further, even as school jurisdictions around the world rush to apply solutions to the technological impasse brought upon by the digitalization of communication, too often the answer is seen as adding training in new competencies to the existing curriculum, as though the crisis is one that can be fixed with a few adjustments. If the aspirational horizon of schooling is the preparation of young people for engaged participation in cultural, civic and economic spectrums, a renewed and comprehensive model of literacy is urgently needed.

“Everybody’s hard times are different”: country as a political investment in white masculine precarity

ABSTRACTRecognizing the complex interplay between country music, lifestyle, and identity, and the disparate nature of these texts and their producers, we center our analysis of the politics of contemporary “country” in the accounts of country music listeners. Through this lens, “country” foregrounds a portrait of precarious labor and white rural economies. Precarity is held up as aspirational, facilitated by the relative structural support of whiteness and masculinity that simultaneously leverages economic hardship to obfuscate these privileged positions. “Country” elides experiences of class marginalization, white rurality, and masculinized labor with mythologized narratives that position simplicity and work as “the good life.”

Bad feeling at work: emotional labour, precarity, and the affective economy

ABSTRACTReturning to Arlie Hochschild’s foundational work, this article argues for the ongoing relevance of emotional labour in understanding the subjective demands placed on those working at the intersection of affective labour and precarity. Drawing on a range of feminist analyses, I understand emotional labour as the work entailed in producing profitable (often positive) affects at the level of the individual worker, thereby challenging views of affective labour that focus on the affects that circulate productively under neoliberalism. The stakes of such emotional labour in the affective economy, I argue, are heightened by conditions of labour precarity in which many workers are asked not only to produce positive affects, but also to subordinate the bad feelings that can arise alongside socio-economic insecurity. I understand the demand for positive affect from workers as emerging not only due to the productivity of such affects under neoliberalism, but also because the prevalence of positive feeling operates ideologically to normalize precarious working conditions. Bad feeling in this context threatens to challenge the neoliberal status quo. Drawing extensively on Tatjana Turanskyj’s 2011 film Eine Flexibe Frau, I identify the cultural and workplace logics by which bad feelings are excised and suppressed, primarily through the presumption of bad feeling as wilful. These logics complicate any effort to read a straightforward politics of resistance or refusal into bad feeling; however, I conclude that to view bad feeling as structurally embedded and functionalized within capitalist logics offers a means by which to respond differently to those who feel bad as we encounter them in the precarious affective economy.