Working through (mis)recognition : understanding vulnerability as ambivalence in precarious worker subjectivity
Abstract
Most workers around the world are part of the precariat, characterized by non-permanent, informal, short-term, low-pay, low-skill, and insecure jobs. While there have been many socio-economic critiques of the negative impacts of precarity on workers, the literature has increasingly asked how precarious workers actually live their lives and how their subjectivities are produced on a daily basis. We contribute to this literature by providing a psychosocial account of the ambivalent experiences of precarious workers. We contend that the interplay of recognition and misrecognition plays a crucial role, as the vulnerable, working subject becomes entangled in a complex web of recognizability. We present insights from 104 in-depth interviews, providing a Lacanian analysis of how precarious workers develop unconscious attachments to neoliberal values that are central to the logic of precarity. Understanding this ambivalence helps us develop a more nuanced view of an ethics of precarious workers’ vulnerability.
Citation
Valenzuela , F , Manolchev , C , Böhm , S & Agar , C C 2023 , ' Working through (mis)recognition : understanding vulnerability as ambivalence in precarious worker subjectivity ' , Human Relations , vol. OnlineFirst . https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267231186261
Publication
Human Relations
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0018-7267Type
Journal article
Collections
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