Precarity: from periphery to center of society
Th e current developments in the world of work in Western European societies are an indicator of all leading and rising industrialized countries (especially Russia). Precarious working and living conditions — mainly characterized by uncertainty concerning planning and future — were fi rst classifi ed as a phenomenon of lower social milieus. Recently, precarious situations have gradually attained the center of societies. Fixedterm work contracts, temporary work, on-call employment, and other forms of precarious employment contracts are not only a feature of unskilled workers, but to fi nd at all levels of employment.
Particularly in the UK, France and Germany, more and more people are aff ected by precarious working conditions and, to that effect of precarious living conditions. As French sociologist Robert Castel (2011) describes, this precariousness is associated with the abolition of social gains –for that workers have fought in countless industrial disputes — and the dismantling of the welfare state.
