Advertisement
Advertisement
precarity
[ pri-kair-i-tee ]
noun
- a state of existence in which material provision and psychological wellness are adversely affected by a lack of regular or secure income:
The precarity that defines this socially vulnerable demographic cannot be ignored.
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of precarity1
Example Sentences
The decision is also a Republican acknowledgment of its majority’s precarity.
That squeezes the folks who live there, sometimes leading to the loss of housing, but leaving a far larger number in a state of precarity.
The plutocrats and kleptocrats will also need compliant subjects who see themselves first as consumers and workers — most of whom will be stuck in a state of perpetual survival mode and economic precarity as they try to endure cannibal capitalism — and not primarily as citizens and responsible members of a humane society with any obligation or responsibility to other human beings beyond their immediate family and “community.”
Many Americans are already in survival mode because of extreme economic precarity and other forms of marginalization.
What I have encountered is widespread fear among ordinary people who are trying to survive financial precarity and avoid total household collapse and homelessness.
Advertisement
More About Precarity
What isprecarity?
Precarity is a state of existence in which someone’s mental health or financial security is out of their control because they don’t have a regular income.
A person who cannot find regular work will have a hard time paying their bills. Equally, this could affect their mental health, causing anxiety, worry, anger, and other negative emotions. Someone in this situation is in a precarious, or uncertain, position. They are experiencing precarity.
Precarity can also be used to describe businesses and financial markets. For example, if you want to invest in a public company, but the company’s market is somewhat stagnant, your investment might be described as precarious and the market as filled with precarity.
Example: In my neighborhood, a lot of people experience precarity and are often looking for work.
Where doesٲcome from?
The first records of the term precarity come from around the 1950s. It combines the term precarious, meaning “uncertain or insecure,” and the suffix -ity, which form nouns expressing a state or quality. Precarity effectively means “a state of uncertainty.”
Did you know ... ?
What are some words that share a root or word element with precarity?
What are some words that often get used in discussing precarity?
How isٲused in real life?
Precarity is normally used in the specific context of financial instability.
It’s clear that one of the many crises of 2020 is how many people don’t understand colleges, universities, how they work, how they are funded, and how much precarity there is at all levels.
But when schools mass close in 2021/mass fire talented teachers, folks are gon learn.
— Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@IBJIYONGI)
I think more millennials and particularly women are turning against "hustle culture" and the constant search for traditional career validation – the inevitable result of years of burnout, layoffs and employment precarity
— amil (@amil)
I’ve never really watched a tiny house show (forgive me ) but is all of this just an exercise rebranding mobile/trailer homes for middle class respectability? It seems oddly like a cultural reckoning with economic precarity by rebranding it aspirationally.
— @anildash@me.dm and anildash.com (@anildash)
Try usingprecarity!
Is precarity used correctly in the following sentence?
“Luis had a hard time finding work because the construction industry is full of precarity.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse