Generational Precarity, Education, and the Crisis of Capitalism: Conventional, Neo-Keynesian, and Marxian Perspectives

Abstract

In the wake of the global financial crisis, societies across the world are attempting to manage potentially destabilizing levels of youth unemployment and underemployment. New terms have entered the popular lexicon such as ‘generation jobless’, ‘the new underclass’, and ‘the precariat’ in order to describe a generation of young people struggling to acquire secure livelihoods in the most dismal labor market since the Great Depression. This article draws on analytical resources from critical sociology of education and heterodox political economy in order to critique orthodox economic diagnoses of generational precarity as a human capital problem. It argues that while neo-Keynesian accounts provide an important corrective to certain aspects of conventional (neoclassical/neoliberal) viewpoints, they ultimately fall short of the explanatory power of Marxian analysis, particularly concerning the primacy of class relations and the contradictory role of employment within an increasingly crisis-ridden global capitalism.

Encountering energy precarity: Geographies of fuel poverty among young adults in the UK

“…Neilson and Rossiter () have expanded the meaning of “precarity” to economic and spatial dimensions such as housing and debt. In addition, a number of scholars have referred to specific types or sub‐notions of “precarity” – such as work, migrant and generational precarity (Means, ). These frameworks have provided a basis for theoretical explorations and empirical analyses alike.…”

Socialiniai ir ekonominiai prekariato plėtros aspektai

“…Prekariatas neturi jokios darbo garantijos ir priverstas pastoviai aplikuoti, norėdamas gauti darbo arba keisti darbo rūšį. Prekariatas apibūdina nuo Didžiosios Depresijos laikų nematytą darbo rinkos ir visuomeninės struktūros būklę (Means, 2015 (Munck, 2013, 749-750 p.). Šios teorijos taip pat prisidėjo prie industrinių organizacijų koncepcijos susiformavimo ir nacionalinės ekonomikos idėjų plėtojimo, kai įgyvendinant keinsistines rekomendacijas ir užtikrinant stabilų ekonominį augimą, buvo siekiama užtikrinti ir piliečių socialinę gerovę (Gülalp, 2015, 165 p.).…”

Demarcation of the core and periphery dichotomy: evidence from Turkey's shipyards for a paradoxical precarity model

“…This is important because employment relations in Turkey's shipyards have recently gone through a restructuring process with the deterioration of employee rights. The article is also the first study to focus explicitly on the core employees, as opposed to a well‐established literature on the precarious status of periphery workers in various industries (Means, ; Pollert, ). Investigating specifically the core employees will enable us to evaluate empirically the assumptions of precarity debates on the core employees.…”