A Charter of Rights for the Twenty-First-Century Precariat?
Lecture by Guy Standing
Debate
The economist Guy Standing, a leading proponent of the notion of “precariat”, referring to the social class which has arisen from present-day inequalities, proposes a new way of thinking about the social contract in the twenty-first century.
The inequalities caused by the latest economic crisis have given rise to a new social class: the precariat. For some years now, the economist Guy Standing has been using this concept to refer to a new global reality, that of citizens who, even though they may be working, are condemned to permanent job instability and living in poverty. With his proposal for a Charter of Rights for the twenty-first century, Standing analyses how this precarious generation has been stripped of economic security and how we must rethink the social contract in order to achieve a more sustainable and just democracy.
Guy Standing is an economist, Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and co-founder of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). Notable among his publications are The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011 – published in Spanish by Pasado y presente as El precariado. Una nueva clase social in 2013) and A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens (2014 – published in Spanish by Capitán Swing as Precariado. Una carta de derechos in 2014).
Presented by: David Casassas, lecturer in Social Theory at the University of Barcelona.
This is the closing session of the DESC Observatory’s Tenth Course on Human Rights. Full programme (in Catalan)
Presenters: David Casassas
Participants: Guy Standing
Related contents
Guy Standing
A Charter of Rights for the Twenty-First-Century Precariat?
The economist Guy Standing, a leading proponent of the notion of “precariat”, referring to the social class which has arisen from present-day inequalities, proposes a new way of thinking about the social contract in the twenty-first century.
