Revisiting Precarity with Care: Labour and Social Reproduction in the Era of “Flexible” Capitalism

This article proposes a new reading of the concept of precarity, with regard to the relationship between care and social reproduction. The increased academic interest in the topic of precarious „flexible“ working conditions in developed post-industrial economies is often based on the false dichotomy of „precarity-stability.“ While stable working and living conditions have historically been the privilege of a minority of autonomous individuals engaged in productive labour, free from direct dependence or dependents, women and marginalised groups are often made even more vulnerable as no or unequal value is attached to their heavily exploited labour activities. And while contract work with demands for constant presence in the workplace is not a solution for people in precarious circumstances who need flexibility to navigate complex caring relationships, subordinating the affective sphere to free market principles does not offer an effective solution to the widening inequality between productive and reproductive labour. The paper is situated at three different levels: (1) a critique of the ethnocentrism and androcentrism embedded in the notion of precarity; (2) a call for a more in-depth discussion of the precarious conditions of life in the precarity debate, currently confined to labour conditions; (3) and an appeal to a praxis that restores solidarity, care and love in the workplace as a means to resist the principles of competition and alienation imposed by capitalism. By examining a range of empirical studies, we show the ways in which care redraws the strict boundary between precarity and stability. We argue that rethinking care as a central activity in human production and reproduction, both outside and within wage labour, allows us to more clearly delineate potential sites of exploitation and emancipation within „flexible“ capitalism.