Abstract: This article critically
examines Guy Standing’s A Precariat Charter by posing three questions: 1) What
is the significance of the North/South divide for the global spread of the
precariat? 2) Is the precariat an agent of transformation, or simply a passive
recipient? 3) How should we understand the fragmentation of the working class
and its implications for progressive change? In addressing these questions, I
argue that Standing’s analysis offers useful insights into the current era of
insecurity. But it downplays important variations in forms of precarity, and
also over-emphasises fragmentation and weakness. The limits of this approach
are illustrated through two empirical examples drawn from Johannesburg, South
Africa, and Oakland, United States. Taken together, these examples point
towards a broader and more fluid understanding of the “working class”. They
also underscore possibilities for working-class solidarity, both between stable
workers and their more precarious counterparts, and between different groups
that Standing identifies as the precariat.
