Precarity: Uncertain, insecure and unequal lives in Aotearoa New Zealand – S Groot, C van Ommen, B Masters-Awatere and N Tassell-Matamua (2017)
This important book explores the concept of precariat as a structural feature of globalisation linked to situations and experiences of uncertainty, dependency, powerlessness, perilousness and insufficiency.
Publication details
Groot, S., van Ommen, C., Masters-Awatere, B., & Tassell-Matamua, N. (Eds). (2017). Precarity: Uncertain, insecure and unequal lives in Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University Press.
About the book
The Precariat are our fellow citizens — be they poor, elderly, disabled, homeless, estranged from their cultural communities, refugees, engaged in casual work — who lead lives of uncertainty, dependency, powerlessness, perilousness and insufficiency. They are the outcome of the gradual dismantling of the welfare state and the withering of union representation. They are also the victims of the changing nature of work.
Editors, Shiloh Groot (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Uenukukopako), Clifford van Ommen, Bridget Masters-Awatere ((Te Rarawa, Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau, Ngāi te Rangi) and Natasha Tassell-Mataamua bring together a range of chapters that move beyond the world of labour to identify and illustrate other forms of precarity in New Zealand. These forms include the lack of opportunities for cultural expression and the struggle to be safe. It focuses on New Zealand’s emerging class, not to further vilify it but rather to place its members’ lived experience in plain sight. As the editors say, ‘It is time that all New Zealanders understood the reality of what many of our citizens endure in the struggle to make ends meet and live dignified lives’.
Further information
This publication is part of the series Te Takarangi: Celebrating Māori publications - a sample list of 150 non-fiction books produced by a partnership between Royal Society Te Apārangi and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.