GENERAL THEORY OF THE PRECARIAT GREAT RECESSION, REVOLUTION, REACTION ALEX FOTI A SERIES OF READERS PUBLISHED BY THE INSTITUTE OF NETWORK CULTURES ISSUE NO.: 25 GENERAL THEORY OF THE PRECARIAT GREAT RECESSION, REVOLUTION, REACTION ALEX FOTI 2 THEORY ON DEMAND Theory on Demand #25 General Theory of the Precariat Alex Foti Editorial support: Leonieke van Dipten Copyediting: Max Hampshire Cover design: Katja van Stiphout Figures design: Mirko Bozzato Design: Inte Gloerich EPUB development: Inte Gloerich Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2017 ISBN: 978-94-92302-18-2 Contact Institute of Network Cultures Phone: +31 205951865 Email:
[email protected] Web: http://www.networkcultures.org This publication is available through various print on demand services and freely downloadable from http://networkcultures.org/publications This publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). GENERAL THEORY OF THE PRECARIAT 3 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 7 Chapter 1. Precarious Times 9 The Book’s Theses and Corollaries Dawn of the Precariat: the EuroMayDay Network Chapter 2. The Anatomy of Precarity and the Precariat as Historical Class 19 For a Notion of the Precariat That Is Coherent With Social Experience The Precariat: A Salmagundi of Lower Classes Matrix of Precarious Labor The Precarious’ Universe: Temps, Part-Timers, Freelancers, and Interns Precarity Rankings Precarious Work: Damnation vs. Liberation Immigration and Discrimination Precarious Labor and