Neoliberalism, precarious work and remaking the geography of global capitalism

Herod, Andrew; Lambert, Rob

doi:10.4337/9781781954959.00007

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…As this range of factors suggests, workplace precarity can take many forms. Authors such as Vosko, MacDonald, and Campbell (2009) and Herod and Lambert (2016) have demonstrated its variance across geographies, discussed the difficulties of defining it, and described its multidimensional nature which, for example, may affect workers' financial insecurity but not their mental health or vice versa.…”

Section: Definitions Of Precarious Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the incidence of precarious labour and people's experiences of it are different in regions where it has been the norm compared with regions where more workers previously enjoyed secure employment relationships (Vosko et al, 2009;Herod & Lambert, 2016). One example in the latter category is Canada, where growing workplace precarity has been facilitated by state and corporate action, leading to increasing deregulation and weakening of labour protections in favor of neoliberal flexibility and efficiency (Procyk, Lewchuk, & Shields, 2017).…”

Section: Incidence Of Precarity In the Workplacementioning

confidence: 99%

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Perceptions and Experiences of Precarious Employment in Canadian Libraries: An Exploratory Study

et al. 2019

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Precarious employment is a labour practice characterized for employers by flexibility and economic efficiencies and for workers by vulnerability and uncertainty as to job duration, scheduling, and pay. It is increasingly common in Canada and can result in physical, mental, financial, and social strain for people who experience it. In libraries, it has the potential for negative effects on individual staff members, organizational health, and service quality. However, literature on precarious library work is scarce, and it is unclear how its effects on library staff compare to those described in the broader literature or how it affects the library field as a whole. The purpose of this study was to gather information about library workers’ perceptions and experiences of precarious employment and to see how it played out in library contexts. Thirteen library workers both with and without experiences of precarious employment participated in qualitative, semi-structured interviews, which were synthesized into a narrative summarizing their thoughts and experiences. Results indicated that while there were some positive effects of precarious work, they mainly benefited library organizations from scheduling and financial standpoints, while negative outcomes were more numerous, more salient, and affected individuals as well as organizations. Awareness of such perceptions and experiences may help to spark conversations and support for those experiencing negative effects from precarious work, and it can serve to reduce or eliminate factors leading to those effects. However, failure to address them may result in negative outcomes for library workers and organizations, such as stress, turnover, marginalization, burnout, leaving the field, reduced service quality, and more. Accordingly, this paper provides some of the first qualitative information on precarious employment in libraries and may be used to support broader discussions about the topic.

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Section: Definitions Of Precarious Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Incidence Of Precarity In the Workplacementioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions and Experiences of Precarious Employment in Canadian Libraries: An Exploratory Study

et al. 2019

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“…While use of the concept of precarity in the social sciences has become ‘ubiquitous’ (Herod and Lambert, 2016: 4), it has also attracted critique. Some have highlighted concerns about conceptual clarity and argue that the notion is becoming diffuse and ‘stretched’, losing its usefulness as an analytical tool (Alberti et al, 2018: 448; Jørgensen, 2016: 960).…”

Section: Conceptualising the Terrainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construction Workers in a Climate Precarious World

Newman

Humphrys

2019

Critical Sociology

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This paper examines climatic heat stress as a question of workplace health and safety in relation to at-risk and precarious labour. First, we argue that precarity is usefully understood as a phenomenon that is both generalised (all work is precarious given the function of labour under capitalism) and differentiated (experienced differently across geography, labour process and employment status). We frame climate change and labour relations as internally related and argue that climate change needs to be incorporated into the notion of precarity. Second, we explore the experience of construction workers in New South Wales, Australia, and consider the industry as a potential site of organising over both labour conditions and global warming. We conclude that climate change exacerbates precariousness, disrupting all work and intensifying and extending individual risk in various ways. Further, these experiences present a potential site to simultaneously act on both global warming and labour conditions.

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“…Hence, many employers have encouraged both numerical flexibility (hiring and firing workers as needed) and functional flexibility (through teamwork, job rotation, multi‐tasking etc.). Overall, across the industrialised world and beyond (see Herod and Lambert for details) employers have replaced secure work with insecure work, with the most extreme example perhaps being the rise of “zero‐hour contracts” in which workers are not guaranteed any work but nevertheless must be permanently available (Gialis and Leontidou ).…”

Section: A Mechanism For Linking Gentrification and Labour Market Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Gentrification and Labour Market Precarity in the Contemporary City: A Framework for Analysis

2019

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The interplay between intensifying labour market precarity and gentrification constitutes a hitherto under-researched topic in the fields of labour and urban geography. To rectify this lacuna, we argue that gentrification and labour flexibilisation are both socio-spatial manifestations of capital's efforts to confront crises of accumulation. Distinguishing between what we call "weak" and "strong" links between them, and drawing upon the concepts of "gentrification-supporting" and "gentrification-fostered" labour flexibility, we outline a framework for connecting gentrification and precarity. This allows us to make links between the restructuring of the built environment and the reorganisation of work in the post-industrial city; it also allows us to show how workers, through their agency, can shape rent gaps in the contemporary city.R esum e: L'interaction entre l'intensification de la pr ecarit e du march e du travail et la gentrification constitue un sujet encore peu etudi e dans les domaines de la g eographie du travail et de la g eographie urbaine. Pour rem edier a cette lacune, nous soutenons que la gentrification et la flexibilisation du travail sont deux manifestations socio-spatiales des efforts du capital pour faire face aux crises d'accumulation. En distinguant ce que nous appelons des liens «faibles» et «forts» entre les deux, et en s'appuyant sur les concepts de flexibilit e du travail «soutenant la gentrification» et «favoris e par la gentrification», nous d efinissons un cadre pour relier la gentrification a la pr ecarit e. Cela nous permet de faire des liens entre la restructuration de l'environnement bâti et la r eorganisation du travail dans la ville post-industrielle; cela nous permet egalement de montrer comment les travailleurs, par leur agentivit e, peuvent combler les ecarts de loyers dans la ville contemporaine.

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Neoliberalism, precarious work and remaking the geography of global capitalism

Cited by 19 publications

References 11 publications

Perceptions and Experiences of Precarious Employment in Canadian Libraries: An Exploratory Study

Perceptions and Experiences of Precarious Employment in Canadian Libraries: An Exploratory Study

Construction Workers in a Climate Precarious World

Linking Gentrification and Labour Market Precarity in the Contemporary City: A Framework for Analysis

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