precarity

Essays

Visible Minorities, Visible Risk: Toronto’s Unequal Eviction Burden

Prentiss Dantzler & Khalil Martin & Abigail Meza - 16 September 2025

In Toronto, who gets evicted isn’t random—it follows the city’s racial and economic divides. Canada’s data practices...

Essays

Navigating Jefes Fantasmas in New York City’s Urban Platform Economy

Jackson Todd - 3 March 2023

How has the “platform economy” altered urban life, infrastructure, and labor? Jackson Todd examines New York City’s...

From the Field

Double Jeopardy for Single-Parent Families: When Housing Conditions and Lockdown Collide

Laure Crepin & Fanny Bugeja-Bloch & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 November 2021

Single-parent families are among those households most affected by economic precarity and the current health crisis....

From the Field

Between Two Crises: New York’s Artisanal Food Startup Founders

Nga Than - 28 September 2021

The Covid‑19 pandemic forced a pause to a decade of growth for New York City’s artisanal food startups. Strategies...

From the Field

Understanding Why Homeless People Refuse Emergency Accommodation

Édouard Gardella & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 March 2021

The refusal of emergency accommodation by many homeless people expresses the intensity of their attachment to the...

From the Field

Cleaning and Care Worker Cooperatives in NYC: Empowerment Through Collectivization of Labor

Nora Komposch - 8 December 2020

Worker cooperatives have been shown to reduce precariousness and economic exclusion of marginalized groups. However,...

Essays

Poverty as a Social Stigma

Axelle Brodiez-Dolino & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 December 2019

The distinction between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor is deeply entrenched, and representations of poverty...

From the Field

Rio de Janeiro: Storms, Militia, and Urban Development

Leandro Benmergui & Rafael Soares Gonçalves & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 November 2019

The dramatic consequences of storms at the beginning of 2019 in a favela in Rio de Janeiro reveal the ongoing...

From the Field

Open-Air Auto Shops: Subsistence Jobs in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Collectif Rosa Bonheur & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 October 2019

The informal activities of street mechanics observed by Collectif Rosa Bonheur in northern France attest to a much...

From the Field

Immigrant Men and Voluntary Work in a Swiss City

Agnès Aubry - 15 May 2018

Across Europe, refugees and immigrants find themselves in uncertain civil and legal territory; precariousness infuses...

From the Field

Insecure Lives Under Extreme Climate Conditions: Insights from a Fishing Hamlet in Tamil Nadu, India

Devendraraj Madhanagopal - 17 April 2018

In recent years, climate change–induced weather events have exacerbated poverty and insecurity in small fishing...

From the Field

How Children Cope When Home is a Hotel

Erwan Le Méner & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 5 February 2016

Emergency housing in social hotels is affecting a growing number of families in the Paris region. How does this...

Reviews

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Marine Maurin & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2015

Prejudices regarding the poorest in society die hard. Does living in proximity to some of these populations help...

Debates

Precarity and Gentrification: A Feedback Loop

Samuel Stein - 14 April 2015

How do rent hikes and labor precarity conspire to reinforce each other against tenants and workers? Samuel Stein...

From the Field

The Other Side of Austin, Texas

Caitlyn Collins & Katherine Jensen & Kristine Kilanski & Javier Auyero - 2 March 2015

Despite a booming economy, Austin, Texas, is a city where inequalities persist and grow in the shadow of neoliberal...

Visible Minorities, Visible Risk: Toronto’s Unequal Eviction Burden

Navigating Jefes Fantasmas in New York City’s Urban Platform Economy

Double Jeopardy for Single-Parent Families: When Housing Conditions and Lockdown Collide

Between Two Crises: New York’s Artisanal Food Startup Founders

Understanding Why Homeless People Refuse Emergency Accommodation

Cleaning and Care Worker Cooperatives in NYC: Empowerment Through Collectivization of Labor

Poverty as a Social Stigma

Rio de Janeiro: Storms, Militia, and Urban Development

Open-Air Auto Shops: Subsistence Jobs in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Immigrant Men and Voluntary Work in a Swiss City

Insecure Lives Under Extreme Climate Conditions: Insights from a Fishing Hamlet in Tamil Nadu, India

How Children Cope When Home is a Hotel

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Precarity and Gentrification: A Feedback Loop

The Other Side of Austin, Texas

Series

Featured

Covid-19 Transformed New York’s Destination Food Markets

Moving Inside City Limits: The Urban Mobility of Undocumented Youth

Filming Ethnic Diversity in New York

Looking Inward, Across the Border

The Political Aesthetics of Drag

Disarm the Police

Other resources online

“Our hallway’s big enough to play football in!” The council housing...

Saudi Arabia: How is Mobility Being Transformed in the Oil Kingdom?

Transport for Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age (Paul Mees)

Geopolitics and Electric Vehicles: The Rise of Climate Protectionism

One Way to Fight Rising Food Prices: Public Grocery Stores

The Quiet Power of Car-Free Neighborhoods

Partners