Precarity & Inequality Lab

Launched as a joint-project between Boston University‘s Sociology and Management and Organizations departments in April 2020, the Precarity Lab has provided doctoral students and faculty members an intellectual community for discussing and developing research projects concerning the precarious nature of work, organizations, and markets in today’s era.

The word precarity likely traces its roots to the French term précarité, from précaire (borrowed from the Latin precārius), meaning “granted or exercised only with the permission of another, insecure, uncertain.” In the social sciences, precarious experiences have come to encompass states in which people feel uncertain, insecure or at the mercy of others. By naming ourselves the Precarity Lab, we initially wanted to emphasize our commitment to understanding the experiences of those less powerful in their respective settings. Given the relational nature of precarity, doing so, required us, however, to study both those experiences of as well as those of people in positions of power. We therefore re-named ourselves in 2025 the Precarity & Inequality Lab to captures the full range of dynamics at play.

The Precarity & Inequality Lab supports its members and other participants by hosting regular gatherings to discuss and workshop ongoing research projects as well as by organizing ad-hoc events (e.g., invited speakers). Generous funding in 2022 from Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future provided seed money for the Lab’s activities.