Guy Standing: A Precariat Charter

Guy Standing’s immensely influential 2011 book introduced the Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. A Precariat Charter discusses how rights – political, civil, social and economic – have been denied to the Precariat, and at the importance of redefining our social contract around notions of associational freedom, agency and the commons.  The ecological imperative is also discussed – something that was only hinted at in Standing’s original book but has been widely discussed in relation to the Precariat by theorists and activists alike.

Guy Standing is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. He has previously been Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath, UK, Professor of Labour Economics at Monash University, Australia and Director of the Socio-Economic Security Programme of the International Labour Organization.  He is co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network. His recent books include Work after Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship (2009) and Beyond the New Paternalism: Basic Security as Equality (2002).

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