Paper short abstract:

Unstable employment leads to fragmented and unfulfilling lives. A long-term anthropological study conducted in Spain found that precarious work affects personal and professional relationships, emotional well-being, and future expectations, leading to what Butler (206) defines as "precarious lives".

Paper long abstract:

According to Butler (2006), the rise of precarious jobs has resulted in unstable, fragmented, and unsatisfying lifestyles. This concept is not only rooted in Marxist theory, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of infrastructure, structure, and superstructure, but is also supported by contemporary ethnographies conducted in various countries, including Japan (Allison, 1992), Italy (Molé), Trinidad (Prentice), and Greece. Precarious work not only negatively impacts physical and mental health, but more crucially, it affects individuals' social interactions, emotional well-being, value systems, and expectations. This paper presents the findings of a long-term study conducted in Spain, which utilized a mixed methodology of anthropological fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and analysis of personal networks to collect 60 case studies. The study investigates the impact of precarious work on personal and work relationships, time management, perception of the future, and values. The study concludes that the subjectivation of precariousness has devastating effects on individuals' personal and work relationships, time management, perception of the future, and values. Through this proposal the paper aims to rethink the concept of “precarious society” (or, in other words, how material conditions of precarious existence end up influencing the foundations of the culture of the modern society to come).