Precarious Work and Class Identity: How Gig Employment Reshapes Social Consciousness

Abstract

The growth of precarious employment—temporary, part-time, contract, and gig work characterized by income insecurity, limited benefits, and absence of stable occupational identity—has prompted renewed debate about class formation and class consciousness in post-industrial societies. Guy Standing’s (2011) ‘The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class’ introduced the precariat as a conceptually distinct class with its own material interests and distinctive relationship to work, beyond the traditional proletariat distinction. This paper examines the sociological evidence on whether precarious employment generates a coherent class identity, distinct political consciousness, and capacity for collective action, or whether it produces atomized, fragmented individuals unable to develop shared class interests. Using survey evidence, qualitative interview studies, and emerging protest sociology, we assess the conditions under which precarious workers develop class-based solidarity versus individually pursued strategies of exit or upgrading.