This chapter discusses the literature on precarious work as a phenomenon that has intensified across the industrial Global North over the past five decades or so. It goes on to consider the contours of precarious work today, focusing on its consequences for the UK’s freelance and self-employed workforce. Finally, the chapter considers relevant sociological literature that points towards the need to understand more about the subjective impact and experience of precarious work, including its effects on an individual’s sense of identity and what might be termed their desire for recognition as situated within contemporary social relations.