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6 - Classed and Gendered Experiences of Precarity in Dirty Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2024

By
Rachel Morgan ,
Annilee Game  and
Natalia Slutskaya
Edited by
Elina Meliou ,
Joana Vassilopoulou  and
Mustafa F. Ozbilgin
Elina Meliou
Affiliation:
Brunel University
Joana Vassilopoulou
Affiliation:
Brunel University
Mustafa F. Ozbilgin
Affiliation:
Brunel University
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Summary

This chapter examines how precarity affects the experiences of low skilled dirty workers – a group characterised by stigma and devaluation. Utilising Axel Honneth’s ideas of mutual recognition and the normative significance of work for identity, we explore how precarious working conditions affect self-understanding at the intersection of class and gender. Drawing on ethnographic data from street cleaners and refuse workers across four London boroughs, our findings demonstrate lack of secure employment has resulted in experiences of self-doubt and diminished sense of self-worth. Additionally, our findings highlight how secure employment and the ability to provide for one’s family is imperative to these workers, due to the heavy reliance on working class masculinity norms for affirming identity. Thus, we argue the centrality of work for a positive sense of self remains classed and gendered. We also show how the increasingly precarious nature of work is perpetuating feelings of vulnerability and therefore undermining opportunities for class solidarity through collective action in the face of moral injury for working class men.

Keywords

dirty workrecognitionHonnethphysical taintdisrespectstigmatizationsolidarity
Type
Chapter
Information
Diversity and Precarious Work During Socio-Economic Upheaval
Exploring the Missing Link
 , pp. 99 - 118
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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