Public Lecture Series - The Precariat: How Migration is Shaping the Dangerous Class
Guy Standing, SOAS University of London
Discussant: Eric Crettaz, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western
Switzerland, nccr – on the move
Abstract
The global economy has become a system of rentier capitalism, in which more and more of the
income, wealth and power is flowing to the owners of property, financial, physical and ‘intellectual’.
Correspondingly, less is going to those who rely on labour and work for their income. In that context,
a new global class structure has taken shape, in which the mass ‘working class’ is the precariat.
In all parts of the world, the precariat is being shaped by an upsurge in numerous forms of migration,
including labour circulation, ecological movements, diverse forms of refugees and new forms of
nomadic activity. Migrants constitute a large part of the precariat in all types of economy, and are
integral to a relatively new phenomenon, the growth of various shades of denizen, those losing or not
gaining rights of citizenship.
This presentation will define the concepts underlying this narrative and the social, economic and
political implications of the growth of the precariat.
Time: 18:00 – 19:30 CET
Place: This talk will be held at the University of Neuchâtel, Av. du Premier-Mars 26, Room D63 and on Webex.