From the subaltern to the precariat

Abstract

Precarity is a double condition. On the one hand, it denotes a socioeconomic position of insecurity and poverty, often particularly associated with statelessness. On the other, as is here argued, it denotes an anthropological or existential condition, one for which human beings are constitutionally unable to fully ground themselves in the world and for that reason are open both to anxiety and to openness and risk. This essay argues that these two forms of precarity are not only increasing but are approaching closer to one another, with the result that old leftist models, which posit stable relations between either “bourgeoisie” and “workers,” or “elites” and “subalterns,” and place them at t..