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 today’s precarious nature of work, organizations, and markets.

The word precarity likely traces its roots to the French term précarité, 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 most vulnerable. Given the relational nature of precarity, doing so, required us, however, to study both those experiences as well as those of people in positions of power. We 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. Generous funding from Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future provided seed money for the Lab’s activities.