Covid-19 and the future of work : continuity and change in workplace precarity

Tom Barnes, Sophie Cotton, Rakesh Kumar

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

Abstract

![CDATA[Covid-19 has radically accelerated global trends in the future of work. This chapter looks at the relationship between economic crises, including the Covid-19 Recession, and precarisation as an established dimension of this “future”. It addresses whether precarisation is best understood as a protracted process in which the risks of economic life are transferred gradually onto workers and households by capital and the state or as an intermittent but recurring phenomenon in which social and economic stability is interrupted by cyclical crises. To address this question, the chapter explores empirical relations between key dimensions of worker precarity—income insecurity, labour market insecurity and declining associational power—and major economic crises in affluent economies over the last 20 years. Global, national and sector-level trends show that precarisation has become a generalised process with long-term and short-term dimensions. However, the Covid-19 Recession has also exposed a dimension of machine-based precarity in which technology-enabled shifts in remote working, online fulfilment, and gig work have created opportunities for some firms and workers but deepened precarisation for others through an expansion of poor-quality jobs, employment insecurity and algorithmic management.]]
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCOVID-19 and the Global Political Economy: Crises in the 21st Century
EditorsTim Di Muzio, Matt Dow
Place of PublicationU.K.
PublisherRoutledge
Pages153-168
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9781003250432
ISBN (Print)9781032168210
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022

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