Precariousness – consequences of the new normal (Keynote)

Precarious work has spread to previous well-regulated labour markets, new occupational groups and higher educated. Instability and unpredictability affect more and more employees, directly and indirectly. When more jobs that formerly were stable are transformed into different forms of temporary arrangements it affects the collective solidarity and working and learning cultures in workplaces. Research on precarious work among higher educated has shown how it is experienced when life expectations are not met, when new generations face more insecure living and working conditions than their parents. Feelings of anger and of being cheated are mixed with feelings of guilt and shame. Some give up hope of maintaining a professional identity while others seem to adjust more easily to the new unstable labour market conditions working freelance or organising professional collectives. Behind the different ways of dealing with precarity there is a shared experience of precariousness as the new normal, also fed by the environmental crisis and geopolitical tensions. The question rises what institutional and political actions the development of precarity, precariousness and precarious work call for? The answer goes beyond relying on the Nordic flexicurity model and exploring new ways of organising labour and cooperating with social movements.