Book contents
- Diversity and Precarious Work during Socio-economic Upheaval
- Diversity and Precarious Work during Socio-economic Upheaval
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Pandemic Precarities and Gendered Biopolitics within the Neoliberal University
- 3 LGBTQ+ Individuals and Precarious Work
- 4 Age, Gender, and Precarity
- 5 How the (In)Ability of Using One’s Disability Strategically Reinforces Inequality and Precariousness amongst Disabled Workers
- 6 Classed and Gendered Experiences of Precarity in Dirty Work
- 7 Precarity and Diversity
- 8 Precarious Work in the Gig Economy
- 9 Refugees’ Vulnerability towards Precarious Work
- 10 Trapped in Precarious Work
- 11 How Precarity Is Threaded into Migration Rules
- 12 Culture, Precarity, and Dignity
- 13 Transforming Humanitarianism
- 14 Artificial Intelligence, the Gig Economy, and Precarity
- Index
- References
6 - Classed and Gendered Experiences of Precarity in Dirty Work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2024
- Diversity and Precarious Work during Socio-economic Upheaval
- Diversity and Precarious Work during Socio-economic Upheaval
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Pandemic Precarities and Gendered Biopolitics within the Neoliberal University
- 3 LGBTQ+ Individuals and Precarious Work
- 4 Age, Gender, and Precarity
- 5 How the (In)Ability of Using One’s Disability Strategically Reinforces Inequality and Precariousness amongst Disabled Workers
- 6 Classed and Gendered Experiences of Precarity in Dirty Work
- 7 Precarity and Diversity
- 8 Precarious Work in the Gig Economy
- 9 Refugees’ Vulnerability towards Precarious Work
- 10 Trapped in Precarious Work
- 11 How Precarity Is Threaded into Migration Rules
- 12 Culture, Precarity, and Dignity
- 13 Transforming Humanitarianism
- 14 Artificial Intelligence, the Gig Economy, and Precarity
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter examines how precarity affects the experiences of low skilled dirty workers – a group characterised by stigma and devaluation. Utilising Axel Honneth’s ideas of mutual recognition and the normative significance of work for identity, we explore how precarious working conditions affect self-understanding at the intersection of class and gender. Drawing on ethnographic data from street cleaners and refuse workers across four London boroughs, our findings demonstrate lack of secure employment has resulted in experiences of self-doubt and diminished sense of self-worth. Additionally, our findings highlight how secure employment and the ability to provide for one’s family is imperative to these workers, due to the heavy reliance on working class masculinity norms for affirming identity. Thus, we argue the centrality of work for a positive sense of self remains classed and gendered. We also show how the increasingly precarious nature of work is perpetuating feelings of vulnerability and therefore undermining opportunities for class solidarity through collective action in the face of moral injury for working class men.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Diversity and Precarious Work During Socio-Economic UpheavalExploring the Missing Link, pp. 99 - 118Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024