Beyond Mainstream Labour Market Theory And Precarity: Towards An Alternative To The Neoliberal Model Of Development

Abstract

This paper contextualises contemporary precarity within a mid-range focus on labour market segmentation that takes Marx’s long-range theory of the ‘relative surplus population’ as its point of departure. It also briefly outlines an alternative ‘model of development’ which could address the increasing precarity of a growing proportion of the world’s population.  It first sets out a critical analysis of core elements of mainstream accounts of the labour market, which is a point of comparison in the later sections. The paper ends with an exploratory discussion about how neo-Marxist analysis can supplement Keynesianism, and how both need to be re-focused more clearly on the need to design a post-neoliberal model of development.