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re:publica 17 - All Sessions Podcast
Welcome to the Entreprecariat - Disrupting Precarization

Welcome to the Entreprecariat - Disrupting Precarization

re:publica 17 - All Sessions vor 9 Jahren

The entreprecariat refers to the reciprocal influence of an entrepreneurialist regime and pervasive precarity. Entrepreneurship spilled out of strictly entrepreneurial jobs requiring ordinary people to behave like entrepreneurs. Similarly, precarity becam

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Silvio Lorusso According to Guy Standing, "the global precariat is
not yet a class in the Marxian sense, being internally divided and
only united in fears and insecurities. But it is a class in the
making, approaching a consciousness of common vulnerability".
Similarly, the entreprecariat is a category under construction.
And, as such, it can and should be oriented. The entreprecariat can
reclaim pleasure and foster solidarity. It can rediscover empathy
and protect conviviality. It can reappropriate time and
differentiate it. It can pivot identity out of career and reduce
the burden of work ethic. It can and should enlarge our short
intention spans to build a common understanding of what stability
might mean today. How to do so? The short-term objective is
externalization: entreprecarity is first and foremost a worldview,
an interpretation of reality that orients our behaviors. This
worldview, that is at once embedded in the technological apparatus
and incorporated by individuals, should be externalized. Precarity
is hidden and disguised. It’s not a label people use to define
themselves. While in the Netherlands "the precariat" is mostly an
academic term, in Italy the term is constantly used by news media
with a not-so-veiled negative emphasis. You don’t hear people say
"I’m a proud member of the precariat". In order to tackle
precarity, openness and social cohesion are necessary. The term
"precariat" doesn’t work because it doesn’t produce a gratifying
sense of belonging. We need 'ironic attachment' to recombine
our collective understanding of precarious conditions. Nick Srnicek
and Alex Williams maintain that "changing the cultural consensus
about the work ethic will mean taking actions at an everyday level,
translating these medium-term goals into slogans, memes and
chants." Mocking the daily grinds of self-entrepreneurship and
bitingly diagnosing the miseries of precarity, the entreprecariat
must produce its own slogan, memes and chants.