5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

The term “precarity” has gained particular popularity in scientific and public discourse, especially after the global financial crisis of 2008 and the emergence of the phenomenon of permanent crises (“permacrisis”) that characterizes modern globalized societies. The term points out that in the societies of our time, human existence is characterized by a high degree of contingency and risk in all its aspects and therefore the sense of certainty and security cannot be considered in any area of social life as a given, predominant in the area of labour. In the relevant scientific debate, it is pointed out that the precarious forms of labour constitute a key instrument of governance and subjectification in neoliberalism. It is also mentioned that precarity is an element that should be calculated in order to accurately capture the class structure of modern societies, as the precarious class is considered the new lower class. In this session we will discuss the multiple ways in which biographical research can contribute to the precarity debate, sharpening the research perspective, posing new questions, and contributing to the theoretical conceptualization of precarity and its manifestations. Therefore, we invite proposals for papers that focus on precarity, not statically as a situation but as a biographical process, focusing on the ways in which it shapes contemporary life courses, tracing the diverse and dynamic ways in which the manifestations of precarity are experienced by actors, as well as the ways in which the individuals involved are subjectivized as “precarious” by drawing on relevant discourses.