Work, Workers’ Subjectivity and Workplace Struggles Under Precarity: Theoretical and Comparative Considerations

Chapter 2 demonstrates the approach of this book, which applies a political–economic analysis to Foucauldian governmentality lenses to unpack the historical trajectories of workers’ divergent responses to the expansion of precarious work in different socio-historical contexts. The framework inspires a discussion about the histories of the utilisation of precarious work as a discursive strategy in the more advanced economies of North America and Europe and some parts of East Asia; in comparison to Southeast Asia. The historical and comparative insights are used to unpack the parameters of possibility for the development of consent to and resistance (especially those collective in nature) against increasing precarity, as manifested in the contemporary Indonesian gig economy, and as explored in the later chapters of the book.