Editing The Precariat (section)

== Origins and Conceptual Development ==

The concept gained prominence through the work of '''Guy Standing''', particularly in ''The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class'' (2011). Standing proposed that global labor markets have undergone structural changes producing a new class distinct from the traditional working class. He argued that neoliberal economic policies, labor market deregulation, and the dismantling of social protections have created widespread precarity in employment and life conditions.

In Standing’s framework, The Precariat comprises individuals lacking stable labor contracts, occupational identity, or social protections—features that once characterized the industrial working class. Members of this group experience unstable, low-wage, and often temporary or gig-based employment. They are marked by income volatility, weak social integration, and limited access to welfare or labor rights.

Standing situates the rise of The Precariat within late 20th- and early 21st-century transformations in global capitalism: labor market deregulation, privatization, technological disruption, and the erosion of collective bargaining. These processes, he argues, have produced a distinct class structure in which the precariat occupies a position of structural disadvantage, insecurity, and political disaffection.