The making of labour precarity: three explanatory approaches and their relationship

The research field of labour precarity is loaded with largely isolated empirical studies focusing on specific forms of precarious labour. This article is a preliminary attempt towards a more systematic understanding of the general causes and modulators of labour precarity under contemporary capitalism. It reviews how different traditions of classical theories explain the dynamics of labour precarity under capitalism and how empirical studies on labour precarity exemplify these explanations. It distinguishes three exploratory approaches: namely exploitation, exclusion, and commodification. They comprise distinct models of causation of labour precarity and corresponding proposals to reduce it. It also discusses the relationship between these approaches and suggests the possibility of selectively integrating certain elements of them in future research. Such integration refuses the reductionist temptation to attribute the occurrence of labour precarity to a single mechanism which is popular in the existing literature and provides a powerful tool for comparative historical studies of labour precarity.