Tackling precarious work has been described by the United Nations (UN)’s International Labour Organization (ILO) as the main challenge facing the world of work. In this ground-breaking book, leading applied research scholars, advocates, and activists from across the globe respond to this challenge by showing how Industrial and Organizational (I/O) psychology has a significant contribution to make in humanity moving away from precarious work situations towards sustainable livelihoods. Broken down into four key parts on Sustainable Livelihoods, Fair Incomes, Work Security and Social Protection, the book covers a multitude of topics including the role of poor pay, lack of work-related security, social protection for human health and wellbeing, and interventions and policies to implement for the future of work. The volume offers a detailed look into useful and effective ways to tackle precarious work to create and maintain sustainable livelihoods. This curated collection of 22 chapters considers the broader relationships between previous research work and issues of human security and sustainability that affect workers, families, communities, and societies. Each chapter expands the present understandings of the world of precarious work and how it fits within broader issues of economic, ecological, and social sustainability. In addition to I/O psychologists in research, practice, service and study, this book will also be useful for organizational researchers, labor unions, HR practitioners, fair trade, cooperative, and civil society organizations, social scientists, human security analysts, public health professionals, economists, and supporters of the UN SDGs, including at the UN.

This volume presents original theory and research on precarious work in various parts of the world, identifying its social, political and economic origins, its manifestations in the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Global South, and its consequences for personal and family life.

The condition of precariousness not only provides insights into a segment of the world of work or of a particular subject group, but is also a standpoint for an overview of the condition of the social on a global scale. Because precariousness is multidimensional and polysemantic, it traverses contemporary society and multiple contexts, from industrial to class, gender, family relations as well as political participation, citizenship and migration. This book maps the differences and similarities in the ways precariousness and insecurity in employment and beyond unfold and are subjectively experienced in regions and sectors that are confronted with different labour histories, legislations and economic priorities. Establishing a constructive dialogue amongst different global regions and across disciplines, the chapters explore the shift from precariousness to precariat and collective subjects as it is being articulated in the current global crisis. This edited collection aims to continue a process of mapping experiences by means of ethnographies, fieldwork, interviews, content analysis, where the precarious define their condition and explain how they try to withdraw from, cope with or embrace it. This is valuable reading for students and academics interested in geography, sociology, economics and labour studies.

Employment relations in advanced, post-industrial democracies have become increasingly insecure and uncertain as the risks associated with work are being shifted from employers and governments to workers. Arne L. Kalleberg examines the impact of the liberalization of labor markets and welfare systems on the growth of precarious work and job insecurity for indicators of well-being such as economic insecurity, the transition to adulthood, family formation, and happiness, in six advanced capitalist democracies: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Denmark. This insightful cross-national analysis demonstrates how active labor market policies and generous social welfare systems can help to protect workers and give employers latitude as they seek to adapt to the rise of national and global competition and the rapidity of sweeping technological changes. Such policies thereby form elements of a new social contract that offers the potential for addressing many of the major challenges resulting from the rise of precarious work.

From the end of the Second World War to the early 1980s, the North American norm was that men had full-time jobs, earned a "family wage," and expected to stay with the same employer for life. In households with children, most women were unpaid caregivers. This situation began to change in the mid-1970s as two-earner households became commonplace, with women entering employment through temporary and part-time jobs. Since the 1980s, less permanent precarious employment has increasingly become the norm for all workers. Working Without Commitments offers a new understanding of the social and health impacts of this change in the modern workplace, where outsourcing, limited term contracts, and the elimination of pensions and health benefits have become the new standard. Using information from interviews and surveys with workers in less permanent employment, the authors show how precarious employment affects the health of workers, labour productivity, and the sustainability of the traditional family model. A timely and relevant work for uncertain economic times, Working Without Commitments provides helpful information for understanding the present workplace and securing better futures for today's workforce.