Precarious employment presents a challenge to the social, economic, and political stability of labour markets in industrialized societies and there is widespread consensus that its growth is contributing to a series of common social inequalities. This title aims to yield various ways of understanding the forces driving labour market insecurity.

Precarious employment presents a monumental challenge to the social, economic, and political stability of labour markets in industrialized societies and there is widespread consensus that its growth is contributing to a series of common social inequalities, especially along the lines of gender and citizenship. The editors argue that these inequalities are evident at the national level across industrialized countries, as well as at the regional level within federal societies, such as Canada, Germany, the United States, and Australia and in the European Union. This book brings together contributions addressing this issue which include case studies exploring the size, nature, and dynamics of precarious employment in different industrialized countries and chapters examining conceptual and methodological challenges in the study of precarious employment in comparative perspective. The collection aims to yield new ways of understanding, conceptualizing, measuring, and responding, via public policy and other means - such as new forms of union organization and community organizing at multiple scales - to the forces driving labour market insecurity.

For both its empirical and its theoretical content, this book is an essential addition
to the libraries of scholars of gender, of work/life balance, and of what
the editors prefer to call 'precariousness in employment. - Anne Junor, Industrial Relations Research Centre, The University of New South Wales, Australia