Precariousness in High-Growth Economies

This book is the culmination of advanced historical and sociological fieldwork in China, Japan and France. It explores the evolution of working and living conditions in industrialized societies that have reached a certain level of wealth in a few decades, seeking to offer a more nuanced view on the profound changes experienced by the population in their daily lives. While high growth is generally associated with an increase in workers' standard of living, the high growth seen in China over the last thirty years has also produced situations of precariousness among the working class. This book questions the link between rapid growth and the generalized securitization of the salaried population, which has been assumed in contemporary sociological works, focusing not only on the evolution of labor and life conditions, but also on how labor-relation actors and experts perceive the precariousness experienced in the context of high growth.