The global governance of precarity: primitive accumulation and the politics of irregular work

'Standard' employment relationships, with permanent contracts, regular hours, and decent pay, are under assault.

Precarious work and unemployment are increasingly common, and concern is also growing about the expansion of informal work and the rise of 'modern slavery'.

However, precarity and violence are in fact longstanding features of work for most of the world's population.

Lamenting the 'loss' of secure, stable jobs often reflects a strikingly Eurocentric and historically myopic perspective.

This book argues that standard employment relations have always co-existed with a plethora of different labour regimes.

Highlighting the importance of the governance of irregular forms of labour the author draws together empirical, historical analyses of International Labour Organisation (ILO) policy towards forced labour, unemployment, and social protection for informal workers in sub-Saharan Africa.