Challenges and Contradictions in the 'Normalising' of Precarious Work. (June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rubery, Jill; Grimshaw, Damian; Keizer, Arjan; Johnson, Mathew
• Other Names: Alberti Gabriella guest-editor.; Bessa Ioulia guest-editor.; Hardy Kate guest-editor.; Trappmann Vera guest-editor.; Umney Charles guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Work, employment & society. Volume 32:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 509
• Page End: 527
• Publication Date: 2018-06
• Subjects: activation -- basic income -- commodification -- decommodification -- employment relationship -- employment rights -- precarious work -- social protection; Industrial sociology -- Periodicals; Work -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; 306.36
• DOI: 10.1177/0950017017751790
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-0170

Abstract

Precarious work is increasingly considered the new 'norm' to which employment and social protection systems must adjust. This article explores the contradictions and tensions that arise from different processes of normalisation driven by social policies that simultaneously decommodify and recommodify labour. An expanded framework of decommodification is presented that identifies how the standard employment relationship (SER) may be extended and flexibilised to include those in precarious work, drawing examples from a recent study of precarious work across six European countries. These decommodification processes are found to be both partial and, in some cases, coexisting with activation policies that position precarious work as an alternative to unemployment, thereby recommodifying labour. Despite these challenges and contradictions, the article argues that a new vision of SER reform promises greater inclusion than alternative policy scenarios that give up on the regulation of employers and rely on state subsidies to mitigate against precariousness.