Tadeusz Rachwał - Precarious Places: Social, Cultural and Economic Aspects of Uncertainty and Anxiety in Everyday Life

Die Zunahme sozialer Unsicherheit und kultureller Verunsicherung in postfordistischen Gesellschaften erzeugt einen Status Quo, in dem Prozesse der Prekarisierung und der sozialen Entkopplung (Robert Castel) verstrkt das Zentrum der Gesellschaft durchziehen. Der Verlust sozialer Garantien fhrt dabei zur Aushhlung sozialstaatlicher Errungenschaften. Dadurch werden die Lebenskontexte und das Alltagsleben der Menschen stark verndert.

Das sozialwissenschaftliche Netzwerk S.U.P.I. beschftigt sich auf europischer Ebene seit Jahren mit den gegenwrtigen Formen von sozialer Unsicherheit, Prekaritt und Ungleichheit. Die Reihe, herausgegeben von Mitgliedern des Netzwerks, prsentiert transdisziplinre Forschungen zu den sozialen und kulturellen Transformationen in den sozialstaatlich geprgten Demokratien. Sie versteht sich als Forum fr die Diskussion in nationalen, europischen und auch globalen Kontexten. Ebenen einer kritischen Analyse aus multidisziplinren und feldorientierten Perspektiven werden dabei initiiert, aufgenommen und untersttzt. berschreitung und ffnung dienen programmatisch als Wegmarken fr theoretisch-analytische Beitrge und empirisch-angewandte Forschung.

The increase of social insecurity in post-Fordist societies effect fundamental societal changes. As a consequence Precarity and Disaffiliation (Robert Castel) affecting increasingly the center of society. The loss of social guarantees leads to an erosion of the welfare state. As a result, living situations and everyday life are deeply changed.

The S.U.P.I.-Project (Social Uncertainty, Precarity, Inequality) is an European Research Group established by European and international scholars and experts. The network has been concerned with present forms of social insecurity, precariousness and inequality at European level for years. Edited by members of the network, the book series presents transdisciplinary research on aspects of social and cultural transformations in the democracies which are characterized by the welfare state. The book series opens a discursive space for discussions in national, European and global contexts. The contributions of the book series provide critical analyses from multidisciplinaryperspectives, theoretical-analytical reflections and empirical-applied research.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15037

This Springer VS imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH part of Springer Nature.

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The book offers a cross-disciplinary perspective on the various aspects of precariousness in contemporary culture and society, concentrating on the topographical aspects of sources and causes of uncertainty and anxiety. Precariousness and precarity are themselves provisional and uncertain categories, though ones inviting to rethinking the scopes of precarity and precariousness from the perspective of locality and of places involved in their otherwise global range. The recent years have shown some ways in which precarity has changed its status and has become a strongly debated area not only in economic and political disputes, but also in philosophical debates and various fields of research related to cultural studies. The articles included in the volume address the spatial scope of anxieties and uncertainties involving numerous men and women affected by the several decades of the neoliberal insistence on various kinds of flexibility which, in turn, has put in motion numerous new mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization. Apart from this, a historical view on the making of precarious places is also offered in the pages of the book.

In his contributionA Banality of Evil: Precarity as the Offspring of Individualism,Ronald Arnett unfolds the thesis that precarity is a form of social inevitability in the West due to its love affair with individualism, which functions as a social myth. Precarity, understood as an outgrowth of individualism. Individualism represents social ties and constraints, contrasted with selfishness that necessitates taking into account the social and commercial aspirations of others. Arnetts essay contends that precarity is a natural outcome of individualism; addressing precarity requires acknowledgement of social assumptions and structures that go unexamined, giving rise to a banality of evil within the realm of corporate responsibility.

Antnio Duarte presents a literature review which aims to characterize artists precarity in the context of their social integration, along with that precaritys consequences, the artists reactions it provoques and possible ways to counteract it. For his review, Duarte uses an interdisciplinary approach: the review is based on specialized research literature from psychology, sociology and economy of art. One result of the literature review is that precarity is experienced in multiple ways and entails risky material and psychological consequences and also affects the artistic creative process.