Positioning precarity: The contingent nature of precarious work in structure and practice

Abstract

Conceptualising precarity has come to rest on the multi‐dimensional and differentiated insecurities of job and worker, this however belies the relationship between structure and experience where precarity originates. To bridge that relationship, I employ the landscape concept to position workers relative to the structural contingency of precarious work. To study this landscape, I conducted an ethnography involving job searching, working, and interviewing workers. While certainly insecure, these jobs displayed parallel characteristics of streamlined hiring and short‐notice starts which workers took advantage of. I explore three ideal‐typical ‘jobs’—the first, only, and best job—to examine how vulnerability is balanced with contingency to produce precarity. This analysis and the landscape approach locate the political‐economic transformation of work in the context of workers' lives and their labour market position. Taking precarious work is an act of balancing one's vulnerabilities in a way that constructs and thus naturalises precarity. Overall, the article contributes an image of an economy where workers have to be opportunistic in a continual struggle for work while stratified by their personal circumstances and position in this labour market.