Locating precarization: the state, livelihoods and the politics of precarity in contemporary Portugal

This article explores the themes of precarity and precarization by looking at specific historical conjunctures in the recent history of Portuguese capitalist development, relevant because of their enduring influence in shaping the mutual constitution of state-led projects of accumulation and develop...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Matos, Patrícia
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2019
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/135001
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/135001
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-019-09543-8
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Economia de subsistència
Economia de mercat
Portugal
Subsistence economy
Market economy
Description
Summary:This article explores the themes of precarity and precarization by looking at specific historical conjunctures in the recent history of Portuguese capitalist development, relevant because of their enduring influence in shaping the mutual constitution of state-led projects of accumulation and development, dominant waged regimes and emergent normative livelihood models and projects. The broader aim is to locate and understand precarization as an ongoing process limiting the options and conditions of ‘wage earning’, and the kin-based, classed and generational structures of feeling through which ordinary people imagine and aspire to be ‘livelihood earners’. It is argued that addressing the dialectic between being a wage earner and a livelihood earner is absolutely central to a deeper understanding of precarization and its multiple manifestations.