Intertwined precarities: how can vulnerability create a labor relationship?

Abstract

Through a micro-case study of labor relation within a small Hungarian horticulture enterprise, our study reveals what precarity means and what experiences it entails for a small-farmer employer and his workers. Drawing on theoretical works that emphasize relationality and the multifaceted character of precarity, we can delineate the different constellations of vulnerabilities, dependency, and autonomy in different social positions. Precarity covers a wide range of social situations and experiences. In contrast to previous research, which emphasize the challenges that the heterogeneity of precarious situations pose for class formation, we highlight the ways the experience of precarity may become the basis of solidarity. Instead of scrutinizing only the employee’s precarity, which is common in research, we focus on its relationality. Our micro-case study examines the ways precarity interlinks the employer and the employee despite their different social positions and the potential conflict of interest between them. Our analysis shows that the intertwined (shared but differently experienced) precarity can create a labor relation, which is based on the recognition of each party’s vulnerabilities and mutual dependence between employer and employee. Both parties provide each other with some stability and describe this labor relation with the notion of “family,” which demonstrates the possibilities and the limits of this form of solidarity. Yet, the vulnerabilities of both parties also expose the fragility of this labor relation.