Interpellations to Precarious Work in North and Global South: Expressions, Articulations, Accelerations and Social Resistance

Studies on precarious work have a long history in the global debate. Since the 1980s, several researchers proposed this concept to account for a new reality in employment. Although this discussion mainly had European roots, especially from the decomposition of social protection and security frameworks with the entry of neoliberal policies and labour flexibility, the Global South found its own historical milestones for this debate. The present is a global cycle marked by the increase in inflation, multiplication of social and political crises due to international phenomena of a geopolitical and socio-ecological nature, which has exposed the limits of representative democracies in contemporary capitalism and the emergency of new protests and social conflicts. The world of work has been hit hard by its consequences, seeing an increase in unemployment rates, the uberization of work and the automation of productive processes as technological responses of capital to the crisis. In the first two decades of the 21st century, this situation has been reinforced by the processes of migration, informality, unemployment, pandemic and social crises. This has been accompanied by a significant decline in union membership and organization, and the rise of extreme right-wing discourses in different countries around the world.The convergence of these processes has meant a new network of trends with precarious work like a global phenomena. The dynamics of cultural, technological, ecological, political and economic changes makes necessary a debate about the links between North and Global South through the concept of precarious work and its sociological relevance.