ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines several general approaches to precarity and especially precarious labor in the contexts of the shift from stable so-called standard employment relationships to casualized temporary relationships, as well as of neoliberalism, deregulation and globalization. After summarizing the historical emergence of the term precarity and the relevant early European literature, it traces three different approaches to precarity: its conceptualization by sociologists of work as a labor condition rooted in the decline of the Fordist-Keynesian paradigm in the industrialized world; its identification as a class identity that encompasses a heterogeneous group of workers as reflected in the work of Guy Standing; and finally its explication as generalized human condition that results in the uneven vulnerability social groups. The chapter highlights some contemporary lines of inquiry into precarization that are still emerging, including the impact of gender and potential for resistance, and features the productive potential of applications of precarity to journalism studies.
