Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to expand the under-theorized phenomenon of unemployment in contemporary societies through three main axis of analysis: history, theory and critique. The aim is to expand our conception of life under austerity capitalism from the analytical standpoint of wageless livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

This introductory paper seeks to expand the under-theorized phenomenon of unemployment through three main axis of analysis: history, theory and critique. I begin by referring to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the public policy normalization of unemployment seen through the post-World War II welfare states emergence; followed by the 1970s Great Recession, the introduction of new management techniques and the changing geo-politics of production. My aim is to trace the shifting state apparatus for governing and categorizing the unemployed population within broader capitalist imperatives. After, I focus on a selection of theoretical tools and debates enabling a greater understanding and explanation of unemployment. These include Marx's contributions vis-à-vis the dialectics of capital accumulation and the accumulation of labour (e.g. 'reserve army of labour'; relative surplus populations; lumpenproletariat; virtual paupers, etc); the 1970s politics of informal labour in the capitalist periphery, and the 'end of work' debate at the core; critical feminist theory and reproductive labour; and, debates centered on the precariat, surplus populations, wageless life and the politics of distribution and 'predatory formations of expulsion'.

I conclude by arguing for the relevance of history, theory and critique in deconstructing normalized and ahistorical understandings of employment vis a vis unemployment, while also capturing the articulations among differentially and unevenly geo-political situated labour forces. This is illustrated through an analysis of wageless livelihoods in austerity capitalism.