Event overview
Guy Standing, Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, discusses the idea of A Precariat Charter: A Progressive Agenda for Today's Dangerous Class
Inequality is and always has been about class. Globalisation, technological changes and the neo-liberal economic model have combined to generate a new global class structure, in which the largest rapidly growing class is the precariat. Mired in insecurities, this can be defined in terms of distinctive relations of production, distinctive relations of distribution and distinctive relations to the state.
It is a class-in-the-making, not yet a class-for-itself, and it is a dangerous class because it is internally divided into three factions and because all three are rejecting the mainstream political establishments.
What is needed is a new progressive agenda that could unite enough of the components of the precariat and offer the hope that the precariat could become strong enough to force the state to abolish the conditions that define its existence.
This talk will outline a Precariat Charter, consisting of policies and institutional changes that would strengthen the precariat’s freedom, reduce the chronic insecurity that it faces and redistribute the key assets in its favour, in order to shape a Good Society for the 21st century. Those in the precariat are not just victims; they are potentially transformative and, particularly in Europe, are showing signs of emerging as capable of defining a new progressive politics.
Guy Standing is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The presentation will draw on his recent book, A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens.
All are welcome and no registration is required.
This event is hosted jointly between PERC and Anthropology.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan 2015 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
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