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The Climate Precariat: How Climate Change Exacerbates Marginalization through Labor Displacement of the Agricultural Sector
Jordan Rydman
Affiliation: Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg (Freiburg, Germany); University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa)
Keywords: Climate Change, Environment, Climate Crisis, Global Studies, Sustainability, Environment/Food Anthropology, Agriculture, Agricultural Sector, Labor
Categories: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, News and Views
DOI: 10.17160/josha.9.3.829
Languages: English
This paper is an analysis of the global agricultural sector as the epitome of the Precariat class amid climate change. Building on Guy Standing’s concept of the Precariat, this article discusses how climate change vulnerability, labor vulnerability, inaccess to resources for climate change resiliency, and the dissolving of industrial rights increases precariousness and exacerbates sociocultural, economic, and political marginalization. Examples from Madagascar are used to illustrate the severity of these crises and to make a case for the sense of political urgency they command, but are too often denied. The final analysis invites discussion on the need for accountability and proactivity in applying just solutions for the Climate Precariat, and on what those solutions (could) look like.