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Summary: Motivation: There are 1.3 million domestic workers in Bangladesh; the precarious and private nature of domestic work makes them vulnerable to sexual harassment. Prevalent social norms that regulate sexuality and notions of family honour lead to victim blaming and normalization of male aggression. We contribute to the literature on social norms and women's agency by exploring how they tackle sexual harassment. Purpose: We explore the connection between social norms and gendered agency in tackling workplace sexual harassment. We ask: how do young female domestic workers in Dhaka protect themselves from workplace sexual harassment? What insights do these strategies offer to strengthen women's voice and agency against sexual harassment? Methods and approach: Using a case‐study approach based on interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), and participatory exercises with domestic workers, we explore when, how, and where domestic workers raise their voice against incidents of harassment. Findings: Our findings show that, while most of the workers interviewed expect to face some form of sexual harassment at work, very few lodge formal complaints. They use a range of informal strategies or small manoeuvres to minimize risks. The decision by domestic workers to voice their concerns with family members, community actors, and employers is influenced by their alternative employment options, the damage to their and their family's reputation, and the support they may expect to receive from these actors. The class position and gender of the domestic worker influence these interactions. Policy implications: Based on our findings, we argue that prevalent social norms on sexuality, the precarious nature of domestic work, and the private nature of the home as a workplace, constrain domestic workers' agency, and their protection strategies remain largely individualized. Strengthening agency requires going beyond legal reform and involves creating an alternative public discourse on women's sexuality, developing links between domestic workers with local community organizations and networks, and changing the perceptions of actors responsible for providing protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: Paid work is key for women's empowerment, but many women work in precarious employment where they experience workplace sexual harassment. Articles in this special section explore how social norms and job informality influence women's perceptions about—and their voice and agency to counter—workplace sexual harassment. Purpose: This introductory article highlights the academic and policy contribution of the special section by establishing how the articles collectively explore the relationship between social norms, job informality, and women's agency with respect to workplace sexual harassment, and the kinds of policies that may strengthen women's agency. Methods and approach: Research in two countries explored how gender norms and informality in work arrangements influence young women's voice and agency in response to sexual harassment at work. This article introduces four articles based on the research findings and presents the themes that are explored in case studies with domestic workers and workers in agro‐processing factories in Bangladesh and Uganda. Findings: The findings show that gender norms regarding sexuality and notions of family honour and shame constrain young women's ability to voice incidents of sexual harassment and their agency in seeking support from family and other actors; normalize male aggression; and sustain the perpetrators' impunity. These norms, alongside class and power hierarchies, affect the responses of the actors and institutions both within and outside their workplace. Given the precarious nature of their work, most workers avoid lodging formal complaints and rely on informal mechanisms for self‐protection. Policy implications: The policy implications of the research include the importance of developing common language that will allow women to speak openly about their experiences; increasing access to and confidence in formal complaints mechanisms; developing young women's political capacities to challenge harassment; and address social and gender norms that constrain women and normalize harassment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this papper, we analyze the working conditions of domestic workers in Mexico considering aspects associated with income, social security and tax formalization in order to assess the degree of succes of government actions aimed at improving the conditions of this group. For this, we designed an analysis model based on remuneration, job stability, social security and fiscal formalization. Likewise, its main socioeconomic characteristics are considered. For that, we used the microdata from the National Occupation and Employment Survey for the first quarter of the period between 2018 and 2021 to consider the stage prior to the implementation of the pilot test program for the incorporation of domestic workers into the Mandatory Social Security Regime, its implementation, and the two subsequent years. As the main result, it was identified that domestic workers are nowadays a vulnerable and invisible social group in the focus of government attention. They are characterized by a series of factors that aggravate their vulnerability: both due to their origin and their professional activity, which refer us to their historical precariousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how financially precarious Canadians face particular challenges to accessing the benefits of employment insurance and personal insolvency because these two systems include features designed to guard against moral hazard. However, these design features do not adequately account for how an increasing number of Canadians are precariously employed and precariously indebted. This article synthesizes the research on precarious employment in Canada, and uses it to suggest how one might conceptualize precarious indebtedness. It then traces how the Canadian employment insurance and personal insolvency systems treat characteristics of financial precarity as evidence of misconduct. As a result, precariously employed and indebted Canadians have difficulty accessing income supports and debt relief. These cascading barriers compound the economic hardship of financially precarious Canadians—a result that is inhumane, inequitable, economically counterproductive, and politically destabilizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic Covid-19 has highlighted the precarious working conditions that freelance performers and artists have always worked under. The aim of this article is to understand and explain freelance musicians' strategies and emotional labour for dealing with their ambiguous positions and careers. The article develops a theoretical approach, combining concepts of precarity and emotional labour with Bourdieu's theory of social practices. Interviews with 13 professional Swedish freelance musicians in the art music/classical genre were conducted in the winter of 2021. What is at stake in the gigs the freelancers have, are issues of social belonging and symbolic recognition. Aspirations for working life are negotiated in obvious and subtle ways, practically and emotionally. The freelancers strive to create a fixed point in a job on uncertain grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For about two decades, the number of people working beyond retirement age has been rising steadily. On the one hand, this is closely related to the improved health and qualification conditions of older people. On the other hand, it is also due to increasing financial pressure on retirement incomes. According to the motto “retirees just wanna have fun”, pensioners are looking for jobs that they can enjoy. The main motive, however, remains to be the generation of an additional income on top of their pension. If this is not taken into account, the precarious income and living situation often found with working pensioneers is overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the challenges faced by women in contexts of social insecurity, addressing labor precariousness, activism, and cyberbullying. It explores the intertwining of sexism with the division of labor, highlighting the vulnerability of women in Latin America due to informal labor markets, the impact of COVID-19, and the need for strategies to tackle gender inequalities both online and offline. It explores the impact of informal labor markets, the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, and strategies for addressing gender inequalities both online and offline.

Precarious employment as a determinant of health remains on the rise in Europe, in contrast to the European Pillar of Social Rights. Research in epidemiology, public health, and occupational health research has debated the health impacts of precarious employment. A number of studies have concluded that precarious employment contributes to poor health. More recent research has focused on the contextual influences of the association between precarious employment and health. Accordingly, we argue that the welfare state and the specific institutional arrangements on the national level determine and mediate the extent of the association between precarious employment and health. This research synthesis: (a) debates explanations for the rise of precarious employment in Europe, (b) illustrates how precarious employment has risen in Europe since the 1980s, (c) indicates empirical findings of the association between precarious employment and health in Europe, (d) discusses how research explains between-country differences of the association between precarious employment and health, and (e) presents empirical findings on the contextual determinants of the association between precarious employment and health in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Saúde e Sociedade is the property of Universidade de Sao Paulo, Faculdade de Saude Publica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociología del Trabajo is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Soziologie is the property of Campus Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, we trace Germany's recent reform (and its precursors) seeking to remedy precarious working conditions in the meat sector. Focusing on an extreme case of labour exploitation, and asking how unique it is, allows us to uncover which institutional features of EU Member States condition the liberalization effects of negative integration. We thereby contribute to the literature on Europeanization, which has mainly emphasized weak industrial relations to account for the German meat industry's reliance on cheap migrant labour. Complicated enforcement structures, demanding requirements of administrative cooperation, and the complexities of an evolving case law, we argue, further contributed to the precarious conditions of migrant workers in Germany. Major COVID outbreaks in slaughterhouses created the political momentum for reform which specifically addresses this administrative side of labour protection, but remains limited to the meat sector – despite similar patterns of labour exploitation elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on the adverse impact of digital platforms on democratic politics has generally focussed on supply side factors underlying illiberal populism. Yet by reinforcing a services-led growth model of capitalism in the developing world, the platform economy has also been implicated on the demand-side of the global populist upsurge by fostering new insecure classes as well as precarious urbanisation patterns. Through a case study of the rise of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines' 2016 elections, we show how our theoretical argument has unfolded in one of the most well-known cases of illiberal populism within the Global South. Even while waging unprecedented disinformation campaigns on social media, the political opportunity structure underlying Duterte's electoral victory in 2016 was fostered by the growth of 'rising yet insecure' classes linked to the Philippines' services and platform economy, as well as the socio-spatial legacies of the country's experience of premature deindustrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Prospectiva is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A protracted movement emerged in Kashipur in Southern Odisha in 1993 that stalled a bauxite mining project for over 18 years. It went through fragmentations and eventually petered out by the early 2010s. This paper aims to understand how and why the processes of capital accumulation through dispossession cause fragmentation of social movements and their eventual petering out. I analyse the collective strikes that the villagers engaged in during 2008-2010, paralyzing the company's incipient construction work over a tumultuous nine months. Critically engaging with David Harvey's concept of "accumulation by dispossession" (ABD) and Kalyan Sanyal's concept of "jobless growth", I argue that ABD processes entail protracted interaction of extractive capital, bureaucratic structures, ecology, and the movements of subaltern communities with existing divisions. Dispossession processes generate new fissures in which ownership of land or lack of it due to land acquisition becomes the central axis of cleavage, shaping the politics and outcomes of dispossession. I further reveal that 'jobless growth' is unachievable for a company that can push ahead only through the provision of precarious employment and such promises. It is based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2010-2012. Methodologically, it follows Burawoy's (2000) call to "construct perspectives on globalisation from below" through "ethnographic grounding". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim is to investigate and describe the health conditions of workers who are employed in precarious work settings in Mexico. Specifically, the study aims to provide insight on the health status of workers who are vulnerable due to the informal nature of their employment. Through the evaluation of three different scenarios of precarious employment (n = 110), including workers in mercury miner (workers A), brick-kilns (workers B), and quarries workers (workers C). The study analyzes clinical parameters to determine the workers' renal health condition and assesses their pulmonary function using spirometry. Multivariate analyses and Spearman correlation are performed to determine the contribution of length of service to workers' health parameters. Workers B have the highest incidence of clinical health alterations, with the highest BMI and prediabetes/diabetes index, albumin creatinine ratio, and eGFR. Moreover, pulmonary function parameters show a decrease in %FEV1/FVC in workers B and C compared to workers A, while workers A demonstrate a more significant decrease in %FEV1. Additionally, a negative correlation is observed between the length of service in precarious work settings and lung parameters (r = –0.538, p < 0.001). In conclusion, this study highlights the need to address the issue of precarious employment in Mexico by improving working conditions, access to healthcare and promoting social protection for workers, which can reduce the number of work-related illnesses and deaths and ensure the safety and health of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence indicates that stress increases cardiovascular disease risk. Latinos are disproportionately employed in precarious work conditions that can trigger hypertension risk. We examined if fear of job loss, a work stressor, was associated with hypertension among U.S. Latinos. We utilized 2015 National Health Interview Survey data from working Latino adults (n = 2683). In multivariate logistic regression models, we examined if fear of job loss was associated with hypertension, adjusting for age, sex, education, household income, and health insurance, and whether nativity status modified this relationship. Fear of job loss was significantly associated with increased probability of reporting hypertension among Latino workers in fully adjusted models (PR 1.55, 95% CI 1.18–2.03), compared with no fear of job loss. This relationship varied by nativity. These findings suggest that work-related conditions may contribute to cardiovascular disease risk among Latinos and public health initiatives should promote behavioral interventions in work settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the productive work of Black women when they became entrepreneurs in the informal sector to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves under precarious conditions. The urban setting of South Africa is the site of the study. The economy of this African country provides little hope for the working class to survive, and Black women are at the bottom of every human development index in this context. However, these working-class Black women have decided not to take these characterisations about themselves lying down. They have risen up and decided to become street vendors to make ends meet. We also show that this form of entrepreneurship is not only survivalist, as some scholarship tends to postulate, but it is also sustainable and investment-savvy. Stokvels, in this case, are one of the investment arms that these Black women street vendors have created to grow their collective earnings. We utilise a Marxist-Feminist framework as our eyepiece to look through the study, and the critical narrative interpretation approach helps us to elucidate our data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the experiences and activism of UCU (University and College Union) members in the UK higher education system, addressing issues of precarious employment, pension concerns, and efforts to enhance working conditions and equality. It delves into a range of topics, including demands for childcare and parental leave support, demonstrating the potential of these demands to reshape the landscape of trade union struggles.

In his essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren John Maynard Keynes delineates an economic utopia where most work is done with the aid of technology. In contrast to pessimistic views associated with the term 'technological unemployment' today, Keynes offers an optimistic vision for work societies where technology facilitates more freedom from paid work. Keynes also envisaged a softening of the capitalist work ethic and achievement principle. Today, however, technologically inflicted unemployment is perceived as a threat where gainful employment as a cost and meaningful activity is reduced while profits are maximized. Simultaneously, moral pressures to be employed, self‐sufficient and to contribute to society have solidified. Inspired by Keynes' vision, it is argued that the origins of our economically and politically precarious times lie in a 'de‐politicization of work'. What Keynes perceives as economic possibilities needs to be complemented with political possibilities which otherwise turn into economic and political precarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The child-support enforcement system has failed to come to grips with the labor market realities of the low-wage fathers it summons to court for nonpayment. This Article uses original empirical data gathered from a court-based ethnography and in-depth interviews with judges, lawyers, and noncustodial parents to illustrate how precarious workers experience the child-support enforcement system. The noncustodial fathers in the study are predominantly Black, low-wage, precarious workers who possess significant barriers to employment, including health problems, histories of incarceration, and limited education. Their real-life work experiences present vivid portraits of their difficulties obtaining and retaining stable jobs that provide a living wage. In an effort to find work, they often seek temp jobs or pursue a wide variety of ventures in the cash economy, everything from cutting hair to collecting cans and bottles for money. In light of their precarious work experiences and volatile earnings, it is no surprise that the noncustodial fathers in the study were not able to reliably pay their child-support order in full each month and, consequently, were summoned to court for nonpayment of support. Rather than confronting the reality of what the low-wage precarious labor market offers these fathers, the judges and government attorneys in enforcement hearings, and the child-support system more generally, stubbornly persist in enforcing child-support orders, premised on a full-time minimum wage job, that bear little relationship to the fathers' actual earnings. Instead, inflated child-support orders set fathers up to accrue tremendous child-support debts that burden them and their families. And fathers experience harsh and counterproductive enforcement remedies, including the loss of their drivers' licenses and threats of civil incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Human Sciences Journal / Revue des Sciences Humaines is the property of Universite des Freres Mentouri Constantine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Life expectancy inequities between more‐ and less‐educated groups have grown by 1 to 2 years over the last several decades in the United States. Simultaneously, employment conditions for many workers have deteriorated. Researchers hypothesize that these adverse conditions mediate educational inequities in mortality. However, methodological barriers have impeded research on the role of employment conditions and other hazards as mediating factors in health inequities. Indeed, traditional mediation analysis methods are often biased in occupational health settings, including in those with exposure‐mediator interactions and mediator‐outcome confounders that are caused by exposure. In this paper, we outline—and provide code for—a marginal structural modeling (MSM) approach for estimating total effects and controlled direct effects originally proposed elsewhere, which can be applied to common mediation analysis settings in occupational health research. As an example, we apply our approach to assess the extent to which disparities in employment quality (EQ)—a multidimensional construct characterizing the terms and conditions of the worker‐employer relationship—explained educational inequities in mortality in a 1999–2015 US Panel Study of Income Dynamics sample of workers with mortality follow‐up through 2017. Under certain strong assumptions described in the text, our estimates suggest that over 70% of the educational inequity in mortality would have been eliminated if EQ had been at the 80th percentile (100th = best) across exposure groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Working few hours a week, known as marginal part-time work, may increase both job and income insecurity, which have been linked to the risk of depression. This study examines the association between marginal part-time work and depression and the mediating role of job and income insecurity. Methods We included 30 523 respondents of the Danish Labor Force Survey (DLFS) between 2010 and 2017 and linked them to register-based information on weekly working hours, which was used to identify full-time workers and model group-based trajectories of marginal part-time. These data were linked with survey information on job and income insecurity, and register-based information on hospital-diagnosed depression or redeemed anti-depressant drugs in the following two years. We estimated hazard ratios (HR) by Cox proportional hazards models and conducted mediation analyses to estimate the natural direct and indirect effects using job and income insecurity as mediators. Results We identified three distinct trajectories of marginal part-time work: constant marginal part-time work, mobile towards marginal part-time work, and fluctuating in and out of marginal part-time work. Compared with full-time workers, the constant [HR 2.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.83-3.20], mobile (HR 2.84, 95% CI 2.16-3.75), and fluctuating (HR 3.51, 95% CI 2.07-5.97) trajectories all had higher risks of depression. There was no evidence of mediation by either job (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.92-1.12) or income (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.89-1.08) insecurity. Conclusions We found a higher risk of depression following marginal part-time work. The higher risk was not mediated by job or income insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops an understanding of gendered precarity in project work by considering how the transfer of risk from employer to worker is shaped by the contextual pressures of state policy and the organization of the industrial field. The focus is the organization of project work as a condition underpinning the shifting of this risk in a mature field of precarious employment, the cultural and creative industries (CCIs). Our empirical exploration in Film/TV in the UK and Germany, and Dance in Sweden and the Netherlands, examines the dynamic interplay between state policy domains (cultural, social and regulatory), industry‐level funding bodies or 'transaction organizers' and the cultural processes of CCI project networks. We argue that state‐led influences both drive and mitigate the transfer of risk in project work as gendered, racialized and classed. Our framework contributes to broadening employment literature on risk and the disadvantaging capacity of networks to hoard opportunities in project‐based labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with professors Maria Dabringer and Julia Heinemann, is presented. They discusses precarious employment situations at Austrian universities. They highlight the worsened conditions for temporary academic staff due to recent changes in the University Law, their collaboration with existing initiatives like the IG LektorInnen, and the impact of job insecurity on research, teaching quality, and social mobility within the academic sphere.

Three recent High Court decisions dealing with forms of precarious work have reaffirmed the 'primacy of contract' in determining the rights of workers to the protections of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ('Fair Work Act'). The court's approach represents a turn towards what critical contract theorist Roberto Unger has called 'retro formalism', curtailing any prospect for the common law of employment to recognise the economic reality of working relationships in determining employment status. This article argues that three aspects of the Court's reasons produce this outcome: (i) the articulation of a 'rights and duties' rule to distinguish employment from independent contracting; (ii) the application of strict commercial contract principles to employment relationships; and (iii) the likelihood that the Court's emphasis on the primacy of written contracts will thwart the exercise of some statutory powers of the Fair Work Commission under the Fair Work Act's protective provisions. This development signals the urgency for statutory reform to ensure that the most precarious forms of work are captured in statutory labour laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is prevalent worldwide. However, few studies have examined the effects of pregnancy discrimination on mothers’ perinatal mental health. We aimed to investigate the association between pregnancy discrimination and postpartum depressive symptoms, and the mediation effects of prenatal depressive symptoms on this association. Methods Our sample consisted of 285 Japanese women employed during pregnancy who completed a baseline online survey in May 2020 and a follow-up mail survey two months postpartum. Pregnancy discrimination was defined as exposure to any of 16 forms of disadvantageous treatment or harassment related to pregnancy, prohibited by national guidelines. Prenatal (assessed at baseline) and postpartum (assessed at follow-up) depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were performed overall and stratified by regular (permanent) and non-regular (precarious) employees. Results Overall, 23.9% of participants experienced pregnancy discrimination during pregnancy. After adjusting for potential confounders, pregnancy discrimination was significantly associated with postpartum depressive symptoms (coefficient 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.65–2.88). When stratified by employment type, these effects were observable among non-regular employees (coefficient 2.51, 95% CI 0.45–4.57) but not regular employees. Mediation analysis showed that prenatal depressive symptoms mediated 57.1% (95% CI 20.1–94.1%) of the association between pregnancy discrimination and postpartum depressive symptoms among all participants, with a greater effect among non-regular employees (64.1% [95% CI 18.5–109.8%]). Conclusions Pregnancy discrimination has adverse effects on postpartum depressive symptoms, partially through prenatal depressive symptoms, especially among non-regular employees. To prevent perinatal depression in female workers, employers should comply with legislation and take preventive measures against pregnancy discrimination, while considering vulnerable employees.

The article presents the analysis of the social and labor situation with teachers of Russian universities. The reform and optimization of the sphere of higher education affects the nature and conditions of employment of teachers of Russian universities. There is a lowering in the status and prestige of teaching work. In addition, negative processes are penetrating into the field of education, which make it possible to talk not just about the deterioration of working conditions, but the gradual transformation of highly qualified specialists of higher education into candidates for the precariat. The research is based both on theoretical approaches to the precariat and precarious employment and the results of statistical, analytical reports and data from the All-Russian study “Precariat: A new phenomenon in the socio-economic structure of society”. Based on these materials, the most important indicators of precarization of the work of higher education workers have been identified. Objective indicators of precarization of Russian higher school teachers include the uncertainty of the remuneration system, instability and non-guaranteed of employment, overemployment and underemployment, and subjective indicators include a sense of vulnerability, defenselessness, fear of job loss and, as a consequence, unsatisfactory social well-being, leading to a low assessment of one’s social position in society.

In a new communication context, factors such as the rise of hate speech, disinformation, or a precarious financial and employment situation in the media have made discursive menaces gain increasing significance. Threats of this kind challenge the legitimacy of institutional news media and professional journalists. This article contributes to the existing literature on the legitimization of journalism and boundary work through a study that seeks to understand the perceptions of Southern European journalists of the threats that they encounter in their work and the factors that help explain them. To this end, a survey of 398 journalists in Spain, Italy, and Greece was conducted to learn what personal or professional factors influenced their views and experiences of discursive and non‐discursive menaces. Results show that discursive threats, such as hateful or demeaning speech and public discrediting of one’s work, are the most frequent to the safety of journalists, while expressions of physical violence are less common. Younger and more educated journalists tended to perceive themselves as having been victims of discursive menaces more often, although not many significant differences were observed between different groups of journalists. Even though it could show a worrying trend, this finding can also indicate a growing awareness about menaces of this kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the labor market and given rise to the Great Resignation. Drawing on a mixed methods panel study of 199 precarious and gig-based workers, we analyze how a changing conception of free time during the Covid-19 pandemic led low-wage service workers to seek more fulfilling careers. Whereas most workers initially perceived free time in terms of opportunity costs, they later reconceived this time as enabling an investment in personal growth, moving from "spending time" making money to "investing time" in themselves. This shift in temporal experience is expressed through the adoption of a "work passion" logic and "pandemic epiphanies" that motivated respondents to seek self-affirming and potentially more lucrative work opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 crisis highlights a growing precarity in employment and the importance of employment for workers' well-being. Existing studies primarily examine the consequences of employment precarity through non-standard employment arrangements or the perception of job insecurity as a one-dimensional measure. Recent scholars advocate a multidimensional construct with a wide range of objective and subjective characteristics of precariousness. Using data from Eurofound's Living, Working, and COVID-19 surveys, I define employment precarity as the objective form of employment instability, as well as subjective terms of job insecurity and emotional precariousness. I also investigate whether and how various facets of employment precarity along with COVID-19 risk are associated with workers' mental and subjective well-being across 27 European Union member states during the pandemic. This study sheds light on a comprehensive understanding of objective and subjective dimensions of employment precarity, as well as their effects on workers' well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on separate strands of research documenting the psychological consequences of (a) precarious employment and other challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) ableism, this study incorporates both into an examination of disability-based differences in the joint significance of discrimination and work precarity during the pandemic for mental health. Analyses utilizing data from a regional survey of people with and without disabilities in the Intermountain West (N = 2,012) provide evidence that precarious employment, greater discrimination, and disability independently predict depressive symptoms. Further, in the context of greater discrimination, more precarious employment is found to have greater significance for people with disabilities compared to those who are not currently disabled. These findings challenge us to think about how we engage in research concerning ableism and macro-level stressors, and underscore the role of power structures and positionality in shaping the psychological impact of employment challenges experienced during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugee women are often unable to secure meaningful employment on arrival to Canada. As a result, the uptake of social assistance is common among new arrivals as a temporary provision of income whilst attending programs or upgrading skills. This study explored the factors that contribute to the use of social assistance among refugee women with a focus on the women's views and experience with the current welfare state as a tool for social protection. A modified grounded theory analysis guided our study which consisted of interviews with 20 recent refugee women and 9 settlement agency staff. The women described issues with the design and administration of social assistance which, at times, did not align with their needs. Some contrasted the conundrum of working in precarious jobs and receiving reduced social assistance payments as a consequence. Findings question prior assumptions on the use of social assistance among refugee groups. In particular, the refugee women appeared eager to work but were not afforded the same opportunities as other immigrant groups suggesting the need for social assistance schemes to adapt to the particular circumstances of refugee women to facilitate employment integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines practices and narratives of hustling in the creative industries. We draw on two illustrative cases: independent female filmmakers in Nairobi, Kenya, and independent female fashion designers in Toronto, Canada, with a combined 69 interviews. Taking a comparative, intersectional approach, we explore both the practices and narratives that entrepreneurial creative workers construct. In doing so, we contribute to ongoing conceptual debates regarding the contemporary nature of work in creative industries. We define hustling in the creative industries as entrepreneurially navigating precarity to build and sustain creative businesses. We argue that hustling is not merely a "stage" of work and life to be moved past or overcome, but instead an ongoing, entrepreneurial creative practice. This fact has implications for how we think about success and creative work: hustling is not a deviation from the good life, but a way of making a good life in precarious circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women across the economy continue to encounter difficulties in progressing their careers as occupational segregation and precarious conditions symbolized by the "glass ceiling" and "glass cliff" indicate. Theories of imprint‐organization fit indicate that organizational munificence at the time of appointment may be an important influence on individual careers. Prosperous conditions at the time of hire might generate confidence and capability, whilst scarcity may prompt resourcefulness and resilience. While these effects have been examined in small private firms, they have been relatively unexplored in the context of public service organizations. Moreover, there has been little attention to the study of organizational munificence in the context of women's careers. Drawing on the Integrated Database for Labor Market Research in Denmark, this study evaluates the impact of organizational munificence at appointment on subsequent financial career benefits for women in Danish public services. Results indicate that resource scarcity at the time of appointment is related to enhanced career outcomes, and that the influence of conditions at the outset of a woman's career is more pronounced for women with lower levels of experience and education. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a 2021 international online survey of 419 early career researchers in archaeology. Respondents were passionate about pursuing an academic career, but pessimistic about job and career prospects. Statistics highlight specific obstacles, especially for women, from unstable employment to inequitable practices, and a chronic lack of support. Over 180 open-ended comments reveal worrying levels of workplace bullying and discrimination, particularly targeting women and minorities. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on early career researchers is also examined. The survey's findings are analysed and contextualized within the international higher education sector. A communal effort is necessary to create sustained change, but early career researchers remain hopeful that change can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the well-being of migrants in the global South for whom employment precarity has become normalized, and working and living conditions are associated with poor health, isolation, limited voice and a general lack of protection. Well-being in such contexts may be considered as a multifaceted phenomenon which manifests itself across work and other life domains to include collective sources of well-being. We also recognize the politics of working life in how precarious workers construct well-being, presenting them as engaged in a struggle for meaning in the absence of objectively meaningful work. First, we explore the objective constraints on well-being at multiple sites (personal, relational, organizational, communal) and, second, we draw from a sociological perspective of meaningful work to explore worker agency in deriving subjective autonomy, recognition and dignity. Qualitative data from 41 Bangladeshi migrants in Mauritian construction, food and textile manufacturing firms showed that despite considerable challenges to personal well-being, workers engaged in informal and agentic strategies which shaped their efficacy, voice and relationships to create meaningful work. The findings reveal mechanisms underlying the construction of meaning in precarious work, showing the implications for gendered and culturally-derived agency, and broadening theory on holistic and contextualized perspectives of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The present study aims to investigate the association between exposure to precarious employment three years after graduation and the risk of labor market marginalization (LMM) ten years later. Methods A registered-linked cohort study based on the Swedish Work, Illness, and Labor-market Participation (SWIP) cohort was conducted among all individuals born between 1973 and 1976, who were registered in Sweden the year they turned 27 years old (N=365 702). Information on the exposure of labor market establishment three years after graduating from school and outcome of LMM ten years after graduating was collected from nationwide registers. Relative risk ratios (RRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained by multinominal logistic regression. Results After considering important covariates, young adults in precarious employment three years after graduation were at an increased risk of future long-term unemployment (RRR 2.31), later precarious employment (RRR 2.85), and long-term sickness absence/disability pension (RRR 1.43) compared to individuals who had obtained standard employment arrangements within three years of graduating. Young precariously employed men had a slightly strong association compared to females with regards to all outcomes. Conclusion The result of this study suggests that both young men and women in precarious employment three years after graduation are more likely to have a weaker attachment to the labor force later in life compared to individuals of the same age in standard employment. This is important as the prevalence of precarious employment is increasing globally, and young adults appear to be especially vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role of trades councils and trade unions in organising within local and regional contexts around the challenges facing and potential union strategies for addressing the needs of insecure and precarious workers. We deploy a case study on the Sheffield Trade Union Council and the Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise campaign as a way of exploring innovations and challenges for the trade union movement for organising the unorganised. We explore the potentials as well as limitations of local organising and campaigning around insecurity and marginalisation by trade unions to demonstrate theoretically and empirically within industrial relations research the role of strategic spaces for action by workers and trade unions and the set of institutional, economic, social and cultural resources that workers can draw on in developing their respective strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the prevalence of precarious employment has been on the rise due to structural changes in the global labor market, there is still lack of a clear understanding of whether precarious employment is a social determinant of health. Data from the 2006–2010–2014 General Social Survey (N = 5,411) were used to examine the relationships between patterns of precarious employment and perceived health among U.S. workers. Based on a multidimensional construct of precarious employment, latent class analysis identified four differential patterns of precarious employment experienced by workers: (1) the most precarious group, (2) low precarious with middle income group, (3) low precarious with high income group, and (4) mixed precarious group. I then conducted a multinomial logistic regression and found that socio-demographic characteristics, such as gender, race/ethnicity, and education, were significantly associated with precarious employment class membership. Finally, a logistic regression analysis showed that there were significant differences in perceived health status across precarious employment classes, controlling for individual background characteristics. Study findings highlight the heterogeneity and various patterns of precarious employment experiences and indicate a need for the use of a multidimensional construct of employment precariousness in determining its health impact on the working population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a qualitative study exploring HRM practices in three Australian performing arts companies of different sizes. We focus on the strength of the HRM system by exploring the concepts of distinctiveness, consistency and consensus from the perspectives of key stakeholders. We found, first, weak and largely invisible HR systems in all three companies due to an industry focused on financial survival, project‐based work and a highly casualised labour force. Second, complex and precarious employment modes exist in each organisation which challenge the HR architecture debate in regard to strategic value and uniqueness of core and peripheral employees. Third, a strong commitment to regulatory compliance by organisations to protect their employees demonstrates that HRM practices are relevant in the performing arts. Finally, we suggest that performing artists might be more committed to their craft and industry than to the organisation, which creates challenges for HRM practice in this sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable scholarly attention to the proliferation of gig work on digital platforms, research tracing the broad trends of labour relations is scant. Analysing interview and survey data on food-delivery workers in China between 2018 and 2019, this article demonstrates a trend of de-flexibilisation for workers, which contradicts the purported flexibility of platform-mediated work. It is argued that de-flexibilisation is achieved through intertwined labour management tactics, technological engineering, and the cultural normalisation of platform-dependent precarious jobs. Platform companies and third-party staffing agencies have jointly deployed algorithmic systems and communicative techniques to cultivate what we refer to as 'sticky labour'. The study contributes to the current debate on working in platform capitalism by weighing the compound effects of labour management strategies, social impact of technological engineering of the work process, and the cultural normalisation of platform work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precarious employment and unpaid labour are common features of the cultural and creative industries. While existing literature highlights the benefit of professional development in building careers, it focuses on self-driven rather than formalised activities. Social capital and social disadvantage are recognised as major factors limiting career success. Yet, it is unclear whether formalised professional development programs offer advantages to overcoming such barriers. This article examines a professional development scheme led by a government-funded cultural agency that provides cultural workers with opportunities to develop education-to-work 'transition enhancers'. Using data from 45 participants in the Australia Council for the Arts' Venice Biennale Professional Development Program, we find that the program enables access to three transition enhancers (professional experience, social connections and international experience). However, the program's lack of structure ensures the benefits of participation are most effective for those who bring a proactive approach to engaging in events and building social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper draws on symbolic bordering perspectives as a conceptual frame to highlight practices that shape the reproduction, justification, masking and distancing of precarious work. Via a case-study of the UK harvest labour market in 2020-2021, at a time of Brexit and COVID-19, we use media, employer and locally-based worker insights to show how us-them bordering practices are embedded within low-wage horticultural work. Three interrelated everyday bordering tropes are identified from the analysis of the data. First, while migrant harvest work is celebrated as valuable and essential, it is also portrayed as work achieved by, and suitable for, a constantly shifting, multi-dimensional, and therefore ambiguously defined 'other.' These 'others' and their work are notably valued in so far as they perform their work in particular ways that define them as 'good neoliberal agents.' Finally, a particular focus at the height of COVID-19, was on how low-wage 'others' were portrayed as providing service and duty to align with a national 'community of shared values.' These interrelated symbolic forms of bordering help to mask the exploitative nature of low-wage work and perform an important role in contemporary (transnational) class production/reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]